Anika Begay
Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman disclosed a new stake in sportswear company Nike on Wednesday. Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management said in a securities filing that he owned more than 3 million shares of Nike at the end of June, a stake worth about $229 million. This isn’t the first time Ackman has bought Nike stock. Vscek reported in 2018 that Pershing Square made a $100 million profit by trading in and out of the stock over a six-month period. And Nike wasn’t the only new addition to Pershing’s portfolio in the latest quarter. The hedge fund also disclosed a stake in Brookfield Corp., a Canadian financial firm with large real estate holdings. That position was worth about $285 million at the end of June. In addition to those purchases, Pershing Square has trimmed many of its holdings. The fund sold about 16% of its shares in Alphabet, Google’s parent company, and more than 22% of its shares in Chipotle Mexican Grill, according to the filings and VerityData. Pershing owns Class A and Class C shares of Alphabet. The filings do not reflect any trades Pershing may have made on Tuesday, when Chipotle shares fell 7.5% after the announcement that CEO Brian Niccol was leaving for Starbucks. Hedge funds’ quarterly filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show only end-of-quarter stock positions. Ackman’s fund may have derivative positions not represented in the chart above. Pershing Square has also reported several small changes to its holdings since late June in separate filings. The hedge fund is separate from the proposed closed-end fund Pershing Square USA that Ackman has considered taking public. IPO filings for that fund were withdrawn in late July.
