Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square doubles down on Nike
Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square doubled down on Nike and Brookfield in his concentrated portfolio last quarter. The high-profile investor boosted his investment in Nike drastically in the third quarter, making the bet worth $1.4 billion, according to a regulatory filing. The bet was only worth about $220 million at the end of June. Nike is in the midst of a broader restructuring after it shifted its strategy to sell directly to consumers. The sneaker giant has been gearing up for company veteran Elliott Hill to come out of retirement to take the helm. Just last month, Nike withdrew is full-year guidance and fell short on quarterly revenue as it works to fix its product assortment and rework its approach to innovation. Shares of Nike have plunged more than 30% this year. Pershing Square also boosted its bet on Brookfield last quarter to a stake worth $1.74 billion, making it the second biggest holding behind Alphabet. Earlier this year, Microsoft signed a deal with the company’s majority-owned Brookfield Asset Management to invest more than $10 billion to develop renewable energy capacity to power the growing demand for artificial intelligence and data centers. Brookfield’s portfolio also includes data center operators. Other than these big movers, the hedge fund manager tweaked slightly holdings of Hilton Worldwide Hotels , Restaurant Brands and Canadian Pacific Kansas City , and kept Alphabet , Chipotle and Howard Hughes unchanged.