Activist investor Bill Ackman (Trades, Portfolio) founded the Pershing Square Capital Management Fund in 2003. With a simple investing approach, the fund manager seeks value by buying stocks at cheap prices and selling them once they reach their fair values. Despite having high returns in 2014, the fund experienced poor returns as of July 2016.
For the month of June, Ackman’s fund realized a gross performance of -3.0% and a net performance of -3.1%. The fund’s year to date returns have fallen in the red: the gross return YTD is -20.4% and the net return year to date is -21.1%. The decline in stock prices likely tormented the fund manager’s portfolio.
The fund’s top three holdings are Zoetis Inc. (ZTS, Financial), Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. (CP, Financial) and Restaurant Brands International Inc. (QSR, Financial), which represent 20.94%, 20.89% and 17.17%, respectively. While Zoetis’ stock price slightly increased the second quarter, the stock price sharply decreased during June 23 to June 27. Today, the stock price traded 0.7% below yesterday’s price.
Although Restaurant Brands International generally had increasing stock prices during the second quarter, the stock price sharply declined in early May and toward the end of June. Canadian Pacific Railway, on the other hand, experienced steadily declining stock prices throughout the three-month period. This likely resulted in negative returns for Ackman’s portfolio.
While Ackman currently owns 42,737,394 shares of Platform Specialty Products Corp. (PAH, Financial), these shares only represent 4.15% of the portfolio. During the second quarter, the chemical technology company experienced volatile stock prices. The stock sharply decreased from a three-month high of $10.77 per share during the month of June, tumbling $1.50 per share during June 23 to June 27. Today, the company traded 5.06% lower than its price yesterday.
On June 20, Ackman will conduct its second quarter conference call. Article 2 of this series will summarize the conference call and provide a more thorough analysis of Ackman’s portfolio.
Disclosure: The author currently has no position in any of the stocks discussed in this article.
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