Ackman Buys the Tollbooths: Inside Pershing Square’s Second Quarter
Visa, Mastercard, S&P Global and Netflix arrived at once. Tepper and Druckenmiller moved in other directions.
United States. The most legible message of the second-quarter 13F season, filed by 14 August and covering positions as of 30 June, came from Bill Ackman. Pershing Square opened four sizable positions at once: Visa ($1.12 billion), Mastercard ($1.09 billion), S&P Global ($1.06 billion) and Netflix ($934 million), according to BBAE’s review of the filing, plus smaller stakes in Intercontinental Exchange and Alcon. The four large names made up 21.6% of the portfolio, per 41 Investments. Ackman cut Amazon by about 25%, sold the last of Alphabet and added roughly 48% to Howard Hughes. Uber is now the largest holding, at $2.48 billion.
The common thread is the tollbooth: networks and benchmarks that take a cut of activity rather than funding it. Ackman was not alone. Mastercard also drew buying from Terry Smith’s Fundsmith and AltaRock Partners in the same quarter, per Latticework.
## Elsewhere
- David Tepper’s Appaloosa cut Micron by 41% and Alibaba by 42% by share count, opened Boeing and American Airlines, and disclosed a put position on Apple.
- Stanley Druckenmiller’s Duquesne Family Office kept Natera as its largest holding, at 16.6% of the portfolio, reopened Alphabet, lifted Amazon from 45,800 to 541,600 shares and added Bitdeer, Delta and Fluor.
- Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway raised its Alphabet stake by about 83%.
## The caveat
A 13F is a six-week-old photograph. It shows long US positions only, omits shorts and most hedges, and much may have changed since 30 June. Payment networks and ratings agencies rarely trade cheaply, and the case for them leans on consumer spending holding up in a year when the Fed is raising rates rather than cutting them. Third-quarter filings arrive in mid-November.
Sources: BBAE, 41 Investments, Latticework, Hedge Fund Alpha. This is information, not investment advice.
