market folly

In an amended 13G filed with the SEC due to activity on April 30th, 2009, Pershing Square Capital has updated their stake in Wendy's Arby's Group (WEN). Bill Ackman's hedge fund now shows a 0% ownership stake in Wendy's and owns 0 shares. They have completely sold out of their position. In their previous 13F filing, which disclosed their positions from December 2008, Pershing owned over 45 million shares. Now, they own none.

Bill Ackman has been quite busy lately, as we just yesterday covered his thoughts on his positions in General Growth and Target. Pershing runs a concentrated portfolio of around 8-10 long positions. Ackman's main focus is currently on his largest position, Target (TGT), where he is leading an activist campaign to illicit change in the company's board. He is also dealing with the bankruptcy of General Growth Properties, whom he thinks will emerge out of Chapter 11 with shareholders intact. Wendy's Arby's Group was one of his smaller positions and he seems to be moving on to his other projects now. You can view the rest of Pershing Square's portfolio, but be aware that they are due to update their filings at the end of the week. We will be covering their new portfolio changes in our hedge fund tracking series, so be on the look out.

If you haven't had enough of Bill Ackman yet, you can get more thoughts from him in his interview with Charlie Rose and his letter to Target shareholders. Pershing Square employs value and activist strategies to run their portfolios.

Taken from Google Finance,

Wendy's Arby's Group is "the parent company of Wendy’s International, Inc. (Wendy’s) and Arby’s Restaurant Group, Inc. (ARG), which are the franchisors of the Wendy’s and Arby’s restaurant systems. As of December 28, 2008, the Wendy’s restaurant system consisted of 6,630 restaurants, of which 1,406 were owned and operated by the Company. As of December 28, 2008, the Arby’s restaurant system included 3,756 restaurants, of which 1,176 were owned and operated by the Company."