Bill Ackman Was Like A Kid In A Candy Store

Bill Ackman was like a kid in a candy store the past few days. He bought 860K shares of Fortune Brands (FO) on Friday at $54.47. Then he bought more than 1.5 Million shares on Monday, paying $52.67. The fun didn’t stop there. He kept buying on Tuesday. He purchased nearly 1.25 Million shares at $52.78 (see the details here). Overall he spent more than $193 Million in three days. He bought 500K shares two months ago when FO was trading around $63. He must really think the stock is a bargain at $55.

Unfortunately, Bill Ackman’s portfolio isn’t performing very well this year. Pershing Square lost 4.2% through the end of July. The 10 stocks in his portfolio underperformed the S&P 500 index by around 5 percentage points since July 22nd. Most of his investments are in cyclical stocks and it is normal that these stocks underperform when the markets are tanking. You can check out Bill Ackman and Pershing Square’s stock picks here.