7 shares billionaire Bill Ackman’s firm owns

Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management owns seven shares – Lowes Companies, Chipotle, Restaurant Brands International, Hilton, Howard Hughes, Dominos Pizza, and Canadian Pacific Railway.

Ackman is one of the world’s richest hedge fund managers and best-known billionaires, with a net worth of $3.1 billion.

He founded Pershing Square Capital Management in 2004 and rose to prominence after shorting bond insurer MBIA during the Great Financial Crisis in 2008.

He further lifted his profile by rescuing mall operator General Growth Properties and turning $60 million into $1.6 billion in the process.

By 2015, Ackman had a net worth of $2.5 billion. However, he hit hard times after trying to merge Allergan and Valeant. He made $1 billion on Allergan but lost $3 billion on Valeant.

In March 2020, when the Covid pandemic tanked markets, Ackman made $2.6 billion on a $27 million investment in credit hedges.

Most recently, Ackman made a huge loss on Netflix. In January 2022, Pershing Square disclosed that it had acquired a $1.1 billion stake in Netflix following a 30% drop.

In April, Netflix shares crashed by another 35% following the announcement that it had lost subscribers for the first time in a decade.

In response to this, Ackman sold his entire stake in the company. The move resulted in a loss of more than $400 million in less than three months.

Ackman’s investing style is that of an activist investor, where he takes large positions and takes steps to influence the outcome of the investment.

This style usually comes with a lot of controversy around the positions. He is quoted as saying that his first rule of activist investing is to “make a bold call that nobody believes in”.

Pershing Square Capital Management’s share positions

The table below shows Pershing Square Capital Management’s share positions as of 30 June 2022.