Billionaire investor William Ackman picked up new stakes in sportswear company Nike and investment management firm Brookfield in the second quarter, according to regulatory filings filed Wednesday.
This marks Pershing Square’s first new investment, which manages about $17 billion in assets, since the firm pumped money into Google parent Alphabet in the first quarter of 2023.
Ackman’s hedge fund, Pershing Square Capital Management, held about 3 million shares of Nike and 6.8 million shares of Brookfield as of June 30, according to filings, representing about 0.19% of Nike and 0.34% of Brookfield. Nike and Brookfield did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Nike shares rose 4 percent in after-hours trading after falling 26 percent since January, hours after speculation grew that activist investors might start buying into the company and press for improvements, some fund managers told Reuters.
The company has seen sales growth slow due to competition from Adidas, On Holdings Inc. and Deckers’ Hoka brand, which prompted it to increase marketing spending in the run-up to the recently concluded Olympics while also launching cheaper sneakers around the world.
For Ackman, who made his fortune by forcing companies to reinvent themselves, it marks a return to the company he invested in in late 2017 and made a $100 million profit from.
The investment was a rare passive one for Mr. Ackman, an avid tennis player who was often photographed wearing the company’s shoes, shirts and wristbands at the time. At this time, Mr. Ackman has not disclosed what he plans to do with the investment.
A spokesman for Mr. Ackman declined to comment on Pershing Square’s intentions regarding Nike and Brookfield.
The filing, a so-called 13F filing that shows the stocks fund managers held at the end of a previous quarter, also showed that Pershing Square reduced its stake in longtime investment Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. by 23% during the second quarter. As of June 30, Pershing held 28.8 million Chipotle shares.
Ackman, who pushed Chipotle to turn things around during its food-safety woes, paved the way for a tenfold increase in the burrito maker’s stock price when he brought in Brian Niccol as CEO in 2018. Niccol was poached this week to become Starbucks’ new CEO.
Wednesday’s filing also revealed that Ackman has reduced his holdings of Alphabet’s Class C stock by about 20% to 7.5 million shares and his holdings of Alphabet’s Class A stock by 8.5% to 3.9 million shares.
Ackman has also been in the headlines after he vowed to abandon his activist approach in favor of a quieter investment style in 2022. Last month, he abruptly dropped plans to launch a mega-fund targeted in part at U.S. retail investors.
Through early August, Ackman’s Pershing Square Holdings fund was down 4.4%, while the broader stock market had risen 15% since January.
