Icahn stake in Hain grows

With a few more bulk purchases of Hain Celestial Group shares last week, activist investor Carl Icahn upped his holdings to nearly 15 percent of the Melville natural foods maker.

Icahn bought a total of 87,400 more shares in three transactions, leaving him with 6,388,121 shares, or 14.92 percent of all shares.

He made the purchases last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, of 20,000 shares at $26.37, 29,700 shares at $26.29 and 37,700 at $26.10.

Company shares opened Monday at $25.98.

The investor has been steadily adding to his Hain holdings in recent months since the company in July agreed to seat on the Hain board his son and one other Icahn company executive, David S. Schechter, managing director of Icahn Capital Group. Icahn had said he believed Hain's shares are undervalued. According to Icahn's July deal with Hain, he was given two directors' seats in exchange for his support for the company's current slate of directors.

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