Bill Ackman has had a busy year overseeing Pershing Square and its newly listed stock-picking vehicle, Pershing Square USA. The activist investor also exited his $1.5 billion stake in Universal Music after the company declined a $65 billion takeover offer.
On Thursday, Ackman detailed significant portfolio adjustments for Pershing Square, adding six new holdings in the second quarter including Netflix, Mastercard, Visa, Alcon, Intercontinental Exchange, and S&P Global. The changes are attracting substantial market attention.
V for Value
Ackman is widely recognized for his social media presence, boasting 3 million followers on X, and his track record includes activist victories such as Canadian Pacific Railway and Chipotle, as well as notable defeats like Herbalife and JCPenney, which affirm his Wall Street credentials. Beyond the online spotlight, Ackman remains an old-school value investor at heart. The latest portfolio additions he highlighted in a shareholder letter Thursday are positioned as time-tested drivers of long-term investment value.
Visa and Mastercard are “among the highest-quality businesses in the world,” he wrote, and fears they will be disrupted by stablecoins or agentic commerce appear overblown. Netflix, he argued, “has effectively won the streaming wars,” while Alcon, the world’s largest standalone ophthalmology company, is poised for consistent long-term growth supported by aging population demographics.
- Pershing Square USA raised $5 billion in an April initial public offering but has since underperformed. As a closed-end fund with a fixed share count, trading has been limited by thin investor demand.
- Pershing USA is trading at a 22% discount to its portfolio value, which Ackman has identified as its biggest challenge, noting the discount is among the widest of US closed-end funds.
