Bill Ackman's portfolio: concentration and crash protection

Bill Ackman's portfolio at Pershing Square Holdings (PSH), the London-listed fund, had 17 positions, no short positions and long exposure equal to 126% of its net asset value (NAV) at 30 September 2026. Bonds payable equalled 27.2% of NAV that day and cash 1.9%. Fifteen companies each made up more than 3% of NAV, from Microsoft and Uber to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Key takeaways

1. Ackman runs a concentrated book of long equity positions. PSH's policy puts the substantial majority of capital in 8 to 12 core holdings; at 30 September 2026 it listed 15 companies above 3% of NAV.
2. The fund borrows through long-term bonds, not margin. Long exposure was 126% of NAV at 30 September 2026, and debt to total capital was 21.4%.
3. Hedges are occasional and asymmetric. Credit default swaps bought in February 2020 for $27 million produced $2.6 billion of proceeds across the Pershing Square funds.
4. The 13F is a partial view. Pershing Square Inc.'s 30 June 2026 filing reports $19.5 billion of US-listed longs but omits Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and a $1 billion preferred stake.
5. PSH explicitly targets compound growth. Copio shares the focus on compounding and tests protection through its net contribution to the whole portfolio.

What is Bill Ackman's investment strategy?

Ackman's strategy is to own a small number of large, high-quality companies for years, buy them when a temporary worry pushes the price below his estimate of value, and hedge macro risk only occasionally. PSH's September 2026 fact sheet says "a substantial majority" of the portfolio is "typically allocated to 8 to 12 core holdings". It adds that the manager makes "typically only one to three new core investments each year".

In the 2026 interim report, Ackman and chief investment officer Ryan Israel describe their target businesses as "simple, predictable, and free cash flow-generative". They also want strong competitive positions, little debt, little dependence on capital markets and excellent management. The 2026 investor presentation allows one exception: occasional "mispriced probabilistic investments" with a highly asymmetric payoff, expected to stay a small share of capital.

The letter explains why the team tolerates price swings. If a company's earnings grow 20% in a year while its price-to-earnings multiple falls 10%, its share price still rises 8%. Over the life of a business, the managers argue, shareholder returns should roughly track the growth in its earnings per share. Turnover stays low: the 2022 annual report says the team does not trade around long-term holdings and generally resizes positions only to manage concentration.

What does Pershing Square own in 2026?

At 30 September 2026, PSH listed 15 companies above 3% of NAV: Alcon, Amazon, Brookfield, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Howard Hughes Holdings, Intercontinental Exchange, Mastercard, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, Restaurant Brands, S&P Global, Uber and Visa. Seaport Entertainment Group and Pershing Square SPARC Holdings were below that threshold, giving 17 positions in the September 2026 portfolio update.

PSH's third-quarter letter, dated 2 November 2026, gives weights for the same date as economic exposure, combining shares with delta-adjusted derivatives. Microsoft was 15.0% of net assets, Uber 14.0%, and Meta, Amazon and Brookfield 11.2% each; those five made up 62.6% (our sum), and all positions 126.0%. Howard Hughes common stock was 9.2% and the HHH preferred stake, listed as Vantage, 8.2%. Freddie Mac shows 2.9% there; the fact sheet applies its 3% threshold to NAV before accrued performance fees.

2026 departed from the one-to-three pace of new investments. The interim report lists six new investments: Visa, Mastercard, Netflix, S&P Global, Intercontinental Exchange and Alcon, the last two bought after 30 June. The fund exited Universal Music Group and Alphabet in the first half and Hertz in July 2026. By the 2 November letter, PSH counted seven new investments so far in 2026 and said it had begun building an eighth after 30 September, without naming it.

A sister fund's weights, at 30 June 2026, come from Pershing Square USA (PSUS), a US-listed closed-end fund the same team launched in April 2026. Its semi-annual report (N-CSRS) lists the fund's economic exposure to each company, including equity forwards.

PSUS at 30 June 2026, % of net assets: Microsoft 12.4%; Uber 12.0%; Meta 11.2%; Brookfield 10.0%; Amazon 8.3%; Restaurant Brands 8.0%; Visa 5.6%; Mastercard 5.5%; S&P Global 5.1%; Netflix 4.9%. Source: Pershing Square USA N-CSRS, Portfolio Update, Equity Holdings by Portfolio Company; chart data (CSV). PSUS is a sister fund, not PSH, and its table shows no Howard Hughes position; Fannie Mae (1.7%) and Freddie Mac (1.2%) bring the total to 85.9%. Intercontinental Exchange and Alcon were bought after this date.

The five largest PSUS positions add up to 53.9% of net assets. Those weights measure capital exposure, not each company's contribution to future returns or risk.

How does Pershing Square use leverage and cash?

PSH borrows through long-term bonds, so its stock exposure exceeds its equity. The September 2026 transparency report shows vendor-priced positions of $16.7 billion against NAV of $13.3 billion, bonds payable of 27.17% of NAV and cash of 1.86%. The bonds have principal of $2.3 billion and 1.15 billion euros, and debt to total capital was 21.4% at 30 September 2026.

A month later, PSH's October 2026 portfolio update put long exposure at 124% of NAV on 31 October, with the same 17 positions and no shorts. NAV per share rose 3.0% net in October to $78.89, leaving it 6.9% down for 2026. That update omits cash, bonds and the list of holdings above 3%, so those figures above remain the 30 September ones.

At 30 June 2026, the bonds had a weighted average maturity of five years and a weighted average cost of 3.6%. The board states that PSH has no margin leverage and no mark-to-market covenants on its bonds (interim report, page 4). Without margin loans, a price fall does not by itself force sales to repay lenders, but borrowing still enlarges losses as well as gains.

Cash fell from $1.14 billion at 31 December 2025 to $201 million at 30 June 2026 as the new positions were bought. In the first half of 2026, NAV per share fell 12.6% while the S&P 500 returned 10.2%. The share price fell 23.9% because the discount to NAV widened from 24.1% to 34.0%; it was 36.7% at 30 September.

Over longer periods, the record depends on the start date. From 1 January 2004 to 11 August 2026, the Pershing Square, L.P. and PSH record compounded at 15.6% a year net, against 11.0% for the S&P 500. Since PSH launched on 31 December 2012, its NAV returned 11.9% a year to 30 September 2026, against 15.0% for the S&P 500.

How does Bill Ackman hedge a concentrated portfolio?

Ackman hedges rarely, paying small premiums for instruments that can return a large multiple if a specific macro event occurs. The 2022 annual report describes investing "a typically small amount of capital in a position which will generate a large multiple of the invested capital" as the hedged event becomes likelier. PSH "is not committed to maintaining market hedges at any time" (2025 annual report, page 28).

In early 2020, Pershing Square wrote that it considered liquidating the whole portfolio because of Covid-19, then chose to hedge instead (2019 annual report letter). In late February 2020, the funds bought credit default swaps on US investment grade and high yield credit indices and a European investment grade index.

At their peak the hedges were valued at $2.7 billion, about 40% of total capital, and they were sold between 12 and 23 March. Proceeds were $2.6 billion across the funds ($2.1 billion for PSH) against $27 million in premiums and commissions. The letter adds that the gains offset a similar amount of mark-to-market losses on the shares, and most of the net proceeds were reinvested in portfolio companies at deeply discounted prices.

The second programme targeted inflation and rising rates. Interest rate swaptions contributed 14.3 percentage points to PSH's 2022 gross performance, when NAV fell 8.8% and the S&P 500 fell 18.1%. By 21 March 2023 these hedges had generated $2.8 billion of proceeds from a cost of $419 million across the three funds (2022 annual report, page 4). Swaptions also cost money: they took 3.2 points from gross performance between 1 January and 21 March 2023, and PSH booked a $232 million loss on interest rate swaptions in 2024.

At 30 September 2026, short exposure was 0%. For how option-based protection affected compounding over a long period, see our put option guide and the tail-hedging approach of Mark Spitznagel.

What does Ackman's 13F show, and what does it miss?

Pershing Square Inc., the listed parent of the manager since April 2026, reported 15 lines with a value of $19.5 billion at 30 June 2026 (13F-HR). It aggregates positions across the managed funds and the parent's own stakes, so it is not the PSH portfolio.

A 13F mainly covers US-listed long equities and certain listed options, is filed up to 45 days after quarter end, and excludes shorts, cash, most bonds, futures, currencies, most non-US holdings and private investments. The 30 September 2026 filing was not yet published on 27 October 2026.

At 30 June 2026, % of reported 13F value: Uber 12.7%; Brookfield 12.6%; Microsoft 11.9%; Amazon 10.5%; Howard Hughes 10.2%; Restaurant Brands 9.6%; Meta 9.2%; Visa 5.8%; Mastercard 5.6%; S&P Global 5.4%. Source: Pershing Square Inc. 13F-HR information table, 30 June 2026; chart data (CSV). Howard Hughes combines two filing lines, including 9 million shares bought by the manager's parent in 2025. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Howard Hughes preferred stock do not appear.

In PSH's own first-half attribution, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac cost 2.8 and 2.7 percentage points, so the positions missing from the 13F still moved results.

What is happening with Howard Hughes and Pershing Square USA?

Pershing Square is turning Howard Hughes Holdings (HHH) into an insurance-focused, diversified holding company. In May 2025, Pershing Square bought 9 million new HHH shares for $900 million, taking its group stake to 46.9%, including 27.8% held by PSH, and Ackman became executive chairman (interim report, note 9).

On 4 June 2026, PSH subscribed $1.0 billion of non-voting exchangeable perpetual preferred stock to help HHH buy the insurer Vantage for about $2.1 billion. After the deal, the manager replaced nearly all of Vantage's intermediate and longer-term bonds with short-term US Treasuries and a stock portfolio similar to its other funds.

PSUS and Pershing Square Inc. listed on the New York Stock Exchange on 29 April 2026 after a combined offering that raised $5 billion. PSH was not part of the offering, but its performance fee is reduced by 20% of the management fees the manager earns on PSUS. Ackman is the largest owner of Pershing Square Inc.

Does crash protection make Ackman's portfolio conservative?

Pershing Square's occasional macro hedges can generate gains during the risks they cover, while its equity holdings remain concentrated and leveraged. The 2020 credit hedge offset similar stock losses, but PSH does not require market hedges at all times. Its June 2026 interim report, PDF page 3 explicitly sets an objective of maximising long-term compound annual growth in intrinsic value per share.

Copio's research objective is to maximise expected long-term geometric growth after costs, within the investor's spending needs and capacity for loss. Ackman's 2020 hedge illustrates the mechanism we seek from explicit protection: gains during a covered shock that can be reinvested in productive assets. One successful episode cannot establish that a recurring protection policy improves expected whole-portfolio growth after all costs. Our defensive asset allocation guide compares that standard with simply holding less equity.

What can an individual investor learn from Bill Ackman?

Ackman's approach rests on a few businesses, long holding periods and protection bought only when its price is low relative to the risk. Recent results show the cost: in the year to 30 September 2026, PSH's NAV returned -11.3% against 15.7% for the S&P 500. Compare it with Warren Buffett's asset allocation at Berkshire and Stanley Druckenmiller's flexible macro approach.

Questions to ask of your own portfolio:

• What share of it sits in your five largest holdings, and could you explain how each one makes money? PSH's five largest exposures were 62.6% of net assets at 30 September 2026; copio's concentration view gives your own figure across connected accounts.
• Is any of your exposure borrowed, and could a lender force a sale after a fall?
• If you buy protection, what does it cost each year, and what will you do with a payout?
• If you own a listed fund, do you track its share price as well as its NAV?

For a broader view of how assets behave together, see what diversification means in practice.