Ackman up despite Herb-short
By MICHELLE CELARIER
Last Updated: 4:30 AM, August 3, 2013 Posted: 10:58 PM, August 2, 2013 It hasn’t exactly been the best of weeks for hedge fund activist Bill Ackman (left).
JCPenney, in which Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital owns a 17.7 percent stake, fell 13.4 percent this week after The Post reported an apparel industry factor, CIT, stopped approving shipments for some smaller vendors amid uneasiness with the retailer’s financial statements.
CIT started approving shipment shortly thereafter — but Citigroup then downgraded the retailer’s stock to “sell.”
A second controversial Ackman investment, his $1 billion short bet on Herbalife, also stumbled as shares of the Los Angeles company jumped 9.6 percent this week on a report that George Soros had taken a stake in it.
Scott Eells
Ackman did take a step that would alleviate some of the pain caused by those two investments — Pershing Square took a 9.8 percent stake in Allentown, Pa.-based Air Products & Chemicals.
Shares in Air Products popped 2.9 percent on the news. While they gave back a bit of the bump, the move shows Ackman is still a force Main Street investors should take note of.
In fact, Ackman’s shareholder activist moves have gained an average of 117.98 percent, according to 13D Monitor, which calculates returns from the moment a regulatory filing is made.
The gain is the most of any shareholder activist, 13DMonitor stats show.
By comparison, Carl Icahn’s picks are up an average 25 percent, while Loeb’s activist plays have a 17 percent gain, using the same 13DMonitor methodology.
The two activists have sparred recently with Ackman — including Icahn with his long position in Herbalife.
“Bill Ackman has a tremendous track record over the last several years,” said Ken Squire, the founder of 13DMonitor. “He’s still very good.”
Ackman’s shorts aren’t included on 13DMonitor.
Squire says the critics are forgetting Ackman’s winners like Canadian Pacific, which has gained almost 100 percent, and the monster — General Growth Properties — which is up 1,662 percent since the filing.
mcelarier@nypost.com |
