Bill Ackman and Pershing Square Capital certainly have been busy lately. If you're unfamiliar with them, Bill Ackman runs Pershing Square Capital, a value/activist based hedge fund. The fund started in 2003 after Gotham Partners broke up. The past few years, he has had notable short positions in the bond insurers such as MBIA (MBI) and Ambac (ABK). Some of his activist positions include Target (TGT) and Borders (BGP). Recently, he detailed his plans for Target to spin-off its real-estate to unlock value. We'll see if this proposal picks up any steam. We recently noted Pershing Square's portfolio performance, which was included in our latest hedge fund performance update. Also, we wrote about Mr. Ackman's recent speech at the Value Investing Congress.
Recently, in an amended 13F filing with the SEC for the quarter that ended June 30th 2008, Ackman's Pershing Square has disclosed a 39.9 million shares position in EMC Corp (EMC). As of the time of the filing, Ackman had $586 million worth of EMC. Additionally, Ackman recently filed an amended 13D with the SEC for Long's Drug Stores (LDG), disclosing an 8.8% ownership stake. As per the filing, they now own 3,137,659 shares. And, Lastly, Ackman filed a 13G on Wendys/Arby's Group (WEN) back on October 10th, disclosing an 11.91% stake in the company. As per the filing, they own 55,619,748 shares.
