market folly

Two days ago at the Ira Sohn Conference, Pershing Square's Bill Ackman pitched shares of Family Dollar (FDO) as an attractive investment. At the time, however, no one knew the exact size of his wager. Now, we do.

In an amended 13F filed with the SEC, Pershing Square Capital Management disclosed ownership of 5,764,187 shares of FDO. At current prices of around $55.50, that translates into almost a $320 million investment. Compared to the rest of Pershing's disclosed holdings, this represents about a 5% position.

Keep in mind, though, that this only represents his ownership stake as of March 31st. Since then, Ackman has been buying more shares. At the Ira Sohn Conference on Wednesday, he even mentioned his hedge fund was out buying shares that day. So, it's tough to say exactly how much larger his position is, but it is at the very least slightly larger than what is reported above.

The hedge fund manager thinks shares of Family Dollar are worth up to $92 (including dividends) and sees it as an attractive target for a leveraged buyout. You can see see the rest of Bill Ackman's portfolio in the brand new issue of our Hedge Fund Wisdom newsletter that was just released.

And if you missed it, check out our notes from the Ira Sohn Conference as well as part 2 of our notes here for more hedge fund manager presentations.