Summary
- Bill Ackman is the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management.
- His early bets on credit hedges and treasury bonds, timed before and after the pandemic's peak, generated returns of $2.6 billion and $1.25 billion respectively.
- Ackman's investing strategy combines value investing, activist investing, and maintaining a long-term focus with a concentrated portfolio.
Bill Ackman – Pershing Square Capital Management Top 10 Current Holdings
| Ticker | Company Name | Industry | Percentage of portfolio |
| CMG | Chipotle Mexican Grill | Consumer Discretionary | 21.4% |
| HLT | Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc | Hotels | 17.7% |
| QSR | Restaurant Brands International | Consumer Discretionary | 16.4% |
| LOW | Lowes’s Company Inc | Consumer Discretionary | 14.2% |
| GOOG | Alphabet Inc – Class C | Technology | 13.1% |
| CP | Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited | Railroads | 11.0% |
| GOOG | Alphabet Inc – Class A | Technology | 6.0% |
Related: Alphabet (Google) Earnings Call
Based on filings from Q3 2023, when looking at Pershing Square’s portfolio the firm's holdings appear to be concentrated in four industries:
- Consumer discretionary
- Hotels
- Technology
- Railroads
Pershing Square’s investment in railroad company Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited ($CP) is fascinating.
The firm first invested in the railroad company back in 2011. But was forced to sell its position in 2016 to pay back investors who were withdrawing cash from the fund as it was running into losses (similar to Michael Burry in the movie The Big Short).
Ackman has gone on to say that selling this position is one of his “greatest investment regrets”.
Despite having to sell earlier than he would have liked, Ackman’s firm profited $2.6 billion from its investment in $CP.
It’s clear that Ackman still believes in the company as he re-entered a position in the stock in Q4 2021. As of Q3 2023, the stock makes up 11% of his portfolio.
Bill Ackman – Pershing Square Capital Management Top Buys and Sells in Q3 2023
In Q3 2023, Pershing Square Capital Management completely sold its holdings in Howard Hughes Corporation and reduced its holdings in Lowe’s Company Inc.
Meanwhile, it increased its positions in Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc and Hilton Worlwide Holding Inc.
Ackman decided to invest in Alphabet Inc after the market showed doubts in its AI capabilities. Ackman went on to say he plans to hold the stock for the long term.
In regards to Hilton Worldwide Holdings, Ackman has been a shareholder in the company since 2018. He believes, “Hilton is a high-quality, asset-light, high-margin business with significant long-term growth potential, led by a superb management team.”
| Ticker | Company Name | Industry | Bought/Sold | Amount Bought/Sold |
| HHH | Howard Hughes Corporation | Real Estate | Sold shares (-100%) | 16,600,000 shares |
| GOOG | Alphabet Inc – Class A | Technology | Bought shares (+99.3%) | 2,169,824 shares |
| HLT | Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc | Hotels | Bought shares (+10.4%) | 972,647 shares |
| LOW | Lowe’s Company Inc | Consumer Discretionary | Sold shares (-5.4%) | 402,227 shares |
Bill Ackman – Pershing Square Capital Management Performance Overview
Pershing Square Capital Management’s top 50 weighted holdings have a 3-year annualized return of approximately 10.30% with a 3-year cumulative return of approximately 34.19%. The top 20 weighted holdings have identical returns. In comparison to other hedge funds and the S&P 500, this is a solid performance.
Bill Ackman – Pershing Square Capital Management Sector Allocation
Who is Bill Ackman?
Bill Ackman is the founder and CEO of the hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management.
There aren’t many investors who handled COVID-19 better than Ackman.
By the time the pandemic was over, his firm had turned $204 million into $3.85 billion.
His first bet was right before COVID-19 turned the world upside down.
Looking back it seems obvious. But Ackman was one of the few investors who understood how serious the situation was.
Back in March 2020, his firm bought $27 million in credit hedges.
These securities would go up in value if the value of corporate bonds fell.
In other words, the harder the market crashed the more his investment would be worth.
Within a few weeks of buying these credit hedges, Ackman exited his position walking away with $2.6 billion in profit (nearly a 100x return).
Ackman also saw the market recovering before everyone else.
In late 2020, his firm invested $177 million into treasury bonds.
These bonds would go up in value if interest rates rose.
At the time, interest rates were almost at zero.
Ackman made this bet based on the following signals:
- Jobs were coming back
- Businesses were reopening
- Consumers were spending again
All of this meant record-low interest rates no longer made sense.
Within a few months of making this bet, Ackman’s firm sold its position and netted $1.25 billion.
What is Pershing Square Capital Management?
Pershing Square Capital Management is a private hedge fund founded by Bill Ackman.
Ackman currently serves as the CEO.
The firm began in 2004, with an initial investment of $54 million which was funded by Ackman and Leucadia National Corporation.
As of November 2023, the firm manages around $16 billion in assets.
Pershing Square Capital Management has a publicly traded investment trust (Pershing Square Tontine Holdings Ltd.) trading under $PSTH on the New York Stock Exchange.
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Bill Ackman – Pershing Square Capital Management Investment Strategy & Quotes
Bill Ackman’s investment strategies:
- “Aggressive” Value Investing: Ackman is a big believer of value investing, a strategy developed by Benjamin Graham and further popularized by Warren Buffett. The strategy involves buying securities that appear underpriced based on fundamental analysis. Ackman's approach is unique in that he often takes large positions in a few companies, rather than diversifying across many.
- Activist Investing: Ackman is well known for his activist approach. As an activist investor, he often buys significant stakes in companies he believes are undervalued or poorly managed. He then pushes for changes in the company's strategy, management, or board to increase shareholder value. Ackman has made some spectacular wins with this strategy (Wendy’s and Starbucks) as well as significant losses (Herbalife and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International).
- Long-Term Focus: Despite some high-profile short bets (like his bet against Herbalife), Ackman typically focuses on long-term investments. He often holds onto his investments for several years, believing that it takes time for value to be realized.
- Concentrated Portfolio: Ackman's portfolio rarely holds more than ten stocks at a time. His strategy relies on investing a large amount of capital in a handful of companies that he has researched and has strong convictions for. This goes against the conventional wisdom of diversifying across a large number of stocks.
- Use of Leverage: Ackman has been known to use leverage (borrowed money) to increase the potential return on investments. This can amplify gains but also increase the risk of significant losses.
- Event-Driven Investments: He often looks for event-based opportunities, such as mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, or global events (e.g. COVID-19 pandemic).
Bill Ackman’s Famous Quotes:
- “You learn more from your mistakes than you learn from your successes.”
- “Markets are very efficient in the short term in adjusting to new information, but they are very inefficient in the long term in reflecting the fundamentals of business.”
- “The longer the holding period, the less risk you are taking.”
- “We look for simple, predictable, free-cash-flow-generative businesses, and we look to buy them at a time when they're out of favor.”
Bill Ackman – Pershing Square Capital Management News & Resources
- Bill Ackman: Getting Back Up [The Knowledge Project Ep. #82]
- Bill Ackman's Greatest Hits and Misses
- Bill Ackman’s Biography
- Bill Ackman On Activist Investing, The Economy, And Learning From Mistakes
- Pershing Square Capital Management EDGAR
Frequently Asked Questions
Who runs Pershing Square Asset Management?
Pershing Square Asset Management is run by Bill Ackman.
Bill Ackman is best known for turning a $27 million trade into $2.6 billion from predicting the COVID-19 market crash.
Does Bill Ackman own Pershing Square Asset Management?
Michael Burry is the founder and CEO of Scion Asset Management, a hedge fund that he started in 2000.
What is Bill Ackman’s net worth?
According to Forbes, Bill Ackman’s personal net worth currently sits at $3.8 billion.
Where is this data sourced from?
Data was collected from (but not limited to) the sources below:
- Stockcircle
- HedgeFollow
- WhaleWisdom
- EDGAR filings from the SEC
