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Bill Ackman

Pershing Square Capital Management

United States

3.5

Bill Ackman — Investment style

Growth5Value

Balances growth, quality and price when picking stocks

Macro8Companies

Focuses on company-level change over macro forecasts

Quantitative7Qualitative

Pairs financial analysis with governance and management

Short term8Long term

Holds for years to realize operational improvements

Concentrated2Diversified

Runs a concentrated portfolio of core holdings

Aggressive3Conservative

Takes sizable activist and concentration risks

Leveraged4Unleveraged

Uses derivatives and fund-level borrowing when warranted

Short7Long positions

Mainly long equities; formerly used activist shorts

Innovative5Traditional

Owns technology, consumer and established businesses

Alternative assets8Stocks

Centers on equities with occasional market hedges

Style and evaluation scores are subjective HappyStock editorial assessments.

Evaluation scores

Long-term excess returns9/10

2004–25 compounded at 16.2% vs S&P 500 at 10.7%

Performance consistency5/10

Four down years from 2015 to 2018

Downside protection5/10

Hedges helped, but concentrated bets also caused losses

Replicability4/10

Activism and complex hedges are hard to replicate

Explosiveness10/10

PSH generated a 70.2% NAV return in 2020

Top 3 investment successes

Canadian Pacific Turnaround : Pershing Square bought into the railway in 2011, won a proxy contest in 2012 and helped reshape its leadership and operations By its 2016 exit, the investment had earned about $2.6 billion
Pandemic Credit Hedge : In early 2020, Pershing Square spent roughly $27 million on credit index default swaps as the pandemic spread The hedges yielded about $2.6 billion, much of which was redeployed into cheaper equities The fund returned 70.2% on NAV that year
Bond-Insurer Credit Hedge : From 2005 to 2009, Pershing Square used credit default swaps on bond insurers ahead of and during the financial crisis The positions cost around $64 million and yielded approximately $1.1 billion in total proceeds

Top 3 investment setbacks

Valeant Pharmaceuticals Loss : Pershing Square built a large stake in Valeant in 2015, but drug-pricing controversies and business-model problems crushed the stock It sold the remaining shares in 2017 at a loss exceeding $3 billion Ackman acknowledged misjudging management
Unsuccessful Herbalife Short : Ackman began a high-profile bearish bet against Herbalife in 2012, criticizing its business model The stock did not collapse as predicted He replaced the short with put options in 2017 and exited the remaining bearish wager in 2018 after years of losses and carrying costs
Target Concentrated Fund Loss : Ackman launched a Target-focused fund in 2007 around a property-value thesis Using options amplified losses during the financial crisis By January 2009 the dedicated fund had lost about 89.5% since inception, and his board-election campaign later failed

Top 10 reported SEC 13F holdings

Quarter ended: 2026-06-30 · Filed: 2026-08-14

#	Top 10 reported SEC 13F holdings	Share of reported 13F value
1	Uber Technologies (UBER)	13%
2	Brookfield Corporation (BN)	13%
3	Microsoft (MSFT)	12%
4	Amazon (AMZN)	10%
5	Howard Hughes Holdings (HHH)	10%
6	Restaurant Brands International (QSR)	10%
7	Meta Platforms (META)	9%
8	Visa (V)	6%
9	Mastercard (MA)	6%
10	S&P Global (SPGI)	5%

SEC 13F covers reported positions of an associated investment manager, not the investor’s full current portfolio.