Ackman's investment choice: Why is 75% of his wealth bet on these 5 stocks?

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square currently manages $19 billion in assets, but the allocation of this money is somewhat special—75% of the $15 billion stock portfolio is concentrated in just 5 large-cap stocks.

This may sound extreme, but the logic behind it is quite clear: Ackman only buys companies that he believes are high quality but undervalued. Instead of spreading his bets thin, he prefers to select a few strong candidates with high certainty. Currently, Pershing Square only holds stocks from 15 large-cap companies in North America.

Who are these 5 stocks?

Uber Technologies (19.6%)

Position building only started in January 2025, accumulating 30.3 million shares. Ackman values Uber's network effect, quality of the management team, cash flow generation ability, and autonomous driving opportunities. He anticipates that Uber's earnings per share will grow by over 30% annually in the coming years, while the market has not yet assigned this valuation. With a light asset capital structure and active buybacks, it is a continuous cash machine.

Brookfield Corporation (17.7%)

Holding 73% of the shares of Brookfield Asset Management, the world's largest alternative asset management company, with a management scale exceeding 1 trillion USD (infrastructure, renewable energy, real estate, private equity). The reason for the increased investment is two major growth engines: skyrocketing demand for AI infrastructure + wealth management demand driven by aging (Brookfield Wealth Solutions may expand from 135 billion to 600 billion). This stock has significantly outperformed the S&P 500 over the past decade.

Alphabet (14.4%)

Continuously increasing positions since 2023. The latest quarterly revenue has exceeded $100 billion, with a net profit growth of 33% year-on-year. Google monopolizes 90% of the search market, AI Overviews + Gemini continues to iterate, and Google Cloud orders have piled up to $155 billion—yet Ackman believes the market has not yet reacted to the potential of this company.

Howard Hughes Holdings (13.4%)

Ackman is deeply involved in this, having increased his stake to 47% last year and reassuming the role of chairman. He aims to transform this company, which primarily focuses on real estate development and operations, into a “mini Berkshire”. The next step is to acquire a property insurance company. The goal is to achieve compound growth by unlocking the value of real estate assets and building a self-sustaining, high-return business portfolio.

Restaurant Brands (10.6%)

Control four major brands: Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, and Firehouse Subs, adopting a light asset franchising model. International business + North American Tim Hortons account for 70% of profits. The focus now is on renovating Burger King in the U.S. (investing heavily until 2028) and expanding food and beverage at Tim Hortons. This franchising model generates particularly stable cash flow.

The Investment Philosophy Behind It

This combination reflects Ackman's two core strategies: one is to select rather than diversify, focusing on the most promising targets; the other is not just passive holding, but more often playing the role of an activist investor to drive the release of corporate value (Howard Hughes is a typical example).

While most fund managers are still chasing hot rotations, Ackman has 75% of his $15 billion positioned on 5 stories, which requires strong belief and execution.