Carl Icahn is one of the most famous activist investors on Wall Street. He's known for investing in companies with the goal of unlocking value for himself and other shareholders. Today he owns around 15% of Southwest Gas (NYSE: SWX) via his Icahn Enterprises (NASDAQ: IEP) investment vehicle. Should you invest in Southwest Gas, too? It depends.

Icahn Enterprises owns or effectively owns some companies, meaning it has total control of the entities. An example of this is CVR Energy (NYSE: CVI), which the company treats as an operating subsidiary because it owns a controlling stake (66% of the shares) in the still publicly traded company. But it has also invested in a portfolio of five stocks, in which it owns only part of the public companies. The investment in which it has the largest ownership stake is Southwest Gas, at a bit over 15%. The other holdings are IFF, American Electric Power, Bausch Health, and Illumina. None of the other positions it has crosses the 10% threshold, with three of the four under 2%.

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Source Fool.com