Warren Buffett's $1 trillion investment group, Berkshire Hathaway, has a history of buying consumer stocks.
One of Berkshire’s most famous consumer-focused investments is Coca-Cola (KO) , which it first bought into in the 1980s and still holds today.
In Q4 2024, Berkshire acquired positions in wine-and-liquor distributor Constellation Brands (STZ) for $1.24 billion and Domino's Pizza (DPZ) for $464 million. The two consumer brands were its largest purchases of the quarter.
Billionaire Bill Ackman recently said he wanted to build another Berkshire Hathaway.
Ackman is founder and chief executive of hedge-fund manager Pershing Square Capital Management.
According to a statement on Feb. 18, Ackman proposed to acquire 10 million new shares of real estate firm Howard Hughes Holdings (HHH) at $90 each, increasing its stake to 48% from 37.6%.
If the deal goes through, Ackman will become the company’s chairman and CEO.
His vision, he says, is to turn Howard Hughes into a “modern-day Berkshire Hathaway” by acquiring controlling interests in high-quality businesses.
Howard Hughes is Ackman's No. 4 holding as of Q4 2024, with a market value of roughly $1.4 billion and accounting for 11.72% of the portfolio. He made no change to these holdings during the quarter.
Ackman said he had 'permanently retired' from activist short-selling, which he described as the 'noisiest form of activism.'Sylvain Gaboury/Getty Images
What are Ackman's latest buys?
Ackman for years was known as an activist investor. One of his most famous investments was Canadian Pacific Railway (now Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CP) ).
Between 2011 and 2016, he pushed for major changes in the company's management and operations and profited roughly $2.6 billion from his efforts.
He also posted a more than $1 billion loss after taking a short position on Herbalife in 2018. (Short sales are bets that a security's price will decline.)
In 2022, Ackman said he had “permanently retired” from activist short-selling, which he described as the “noisiest form of activism.”
Ackman's portfolio is concentrated, with stakes in eight to 12 stocks at a time.
According to a recent filing, Ackman’s Pershing Square purchased 2.5 million Nike shares (NKE) valued at $188 million in Q4 2024. The athletic-apparel giant was the firm's largest purchase by value during the quarter.
Ackman has held Nike stock since Q2 2024, when he bought 3 million shares. In Q3, he bought another 13.2 million shares, quintupling his holding.
Nike's stock price tumbled 30% in 2024, with the majority of the loss occurring at the end of the second quarter. On June 28, the company reported for its fiscal Q4, in which sales missed analyst estimates. The stock fell 20%, its biggest one-day drop since 1980.
According to data tracked by whalewisdom.com, Ackman's estimated average purchase price of Nike is $83 a share, while the stock has been hovering below $80 since November.
Besides Nike, Ackman also made two more purchases in Q4.
He bought shares of the Toronto real estate investment firm Brookfield Corp. for $124 million and Seaport Entertainment (SEG) , an entertainment company that separated from Howard Hughes in 2024, for $81.9 million.
Ackman has held Brookfield Corp. shares since Q2 2024 and Seaport Entertainment shares since Q3. He has been adding to his holdings of the two companies.
Brookfield is one of the world’s largest alternative investment firms, with investments including renewable power, real estate and infrastructure. As of Q4, it ranked at the top of Ackman's portfolio with his stake valued at $2 billion.
But Brookfield might step down to No. 2 in the current quarter.
Ackman recently disclosed he began purchasing Uber (UBER) shares in January and now owns 30.3 million shares, according to his post on Feb 7.
That chunk of stock was recently valued at roughly $2.46 billion. Based on Pershing's holdings at the end of Q4, that purchase would make Uber the largest equity position at the hedge fund.
Ackman sold Chipotle and Hilton
In Q4, Pershing Square sold 4.1 million shares of Mexican fast-casual-restaurant chain Chipotle for $251 million in Q4 2024, reducing its stake by 14.4%.
This continues a two-year trend of divestment — Ackman has offloaded 30 million shares of Chipotle since Q4 2022 without making a single purchase during this period. He still holds 24 million shares.
Chipotle's valuation remains elevated compared with its restaurant peers, with its forward price-to-earnings multiple nearly double that of McDonald’s (MCD) , according to Yahoo Finance's data.
In 2024, Brian Niccol, the CEO behind Chipotle's expansion and digital transformation, left to take the helm at Starbucks (SBUX) .
In addition to trimming Chipotle, Ackman sold 1.9 million shares of Hilton Worldwide Holdings (HLT) for $477 million, cutting his stake by 26.2%.
Ackman made no change to the other holdings: Restaurant Brands International (QSR) , Howard Hughes Holdings, Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) , and Canadian Pacific Kansas City.
