Bill Ackman (Trades, Portfolio), after a string of misfortune including a 50% one-day drop in his holding Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX, Financial), unloaded some of his stake in Mondelez (MDLZ, Financial), he said in a letter to shareholders Wednesday.
Ackman sold 20 million of his 43,366,342 shares in the company that he bought in the third quarter 2015 and continued to hold at fourth quarter-end. The investor has said in his latest shareholder letter he owned a total of approximately 105 million Mondelez shares and derivatives combined. In the past year, shares of Mondelez, the snack food company spun off from Kraft, gained around 21%.
In the fourth quarter, Ackman had sold some of his Mondelez forward contracts to increase his holding of the embattled Valeant, which he called an "even more attractive investment."Â
Yesterday, Ackman reported that year-to-date his hedge fund Pershing Square was down 26%.Â
Read the full text of Ackman's email below.
Dear Pershing Square Investor:
After the close, we completed a block sale of 20 million shares of Mondelez International. As a result of the sale, we now own a 5.6% stake in the company, are the third largest owner, and have substantial uninvested cash. We reduced our stake because Mondelez had become an outsized position in light of its initially large size and its outperformance relative to other holdings. We continue to believe in the potential for operating improvements and margin expansion that we expect will lead to substantial further increases in value. As a result, it remains our largest exposure. We are reducing the position size for portfolio management purposes only.
We have carefully reviewed the balance of our holdings and have concluded that they are appropriately sized. As such, we have no current plans to sell any of our other investments.
Please call the investor relations team or me if you have questions about the above.
Sincerely,
Bill
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