Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Just Took a New Position in This Company

Ackman’s Pershing Square has taken a new position in streaming giant Netflix.

The billionaire investor William Ackman has built a new stake in streaming service Netflix Inc worth more than $1 billion since its stock price tumbled starting last Thursday.

The hedgefund, Pershing Square Capital Management, had started buying shares last Friday and now owns more than 3.1 million shares in Netflix, making Pershing Square a top 20 shareholder.

In a letter to his clients, Ackman praised the company’s “best-in-class management team” and on Twitter the manager said he has long admired Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and the “remarkable company he and his team have built.”

Shares were up as much as 5% in after-hours trading on the news.

Ackman wrote that he had been analyzing Netflix at the same time he was investing in Universal Music Group and was ready to buy when Netflix’ “stock price declined sharply last Friday.”

“Now with both UMG and Netflix, we are all-in on streaming as we love the business models, the industry contexts, and the management teams leading these remarkable organizations.”

To raise the cash to make the Netflix purchase, Ackman said the hedgefund had unwound a big piece of its interest rate hedge which generated profits of $1.25 billion.

Pershing Square Holdings lost 13.8% in the first three weeks January, the worst start to a year for the manager in years.

In 2021, the firm posted a gain of 26.9% after the fund surged 70.2% in 2020.

Pershing Square has other investments such as Lowe’s, Chipotle Mexican Grill, and Dominos Pizza Inc.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.