Outspoken billionaire Bill Ackman reportedly raked in $610 million in 2023 to land in the highest 10 on Bloomberg’s annual list of best-paid hedge fund founders, the outlet reported Tuesday.
The Pershing Square Capital Management CEO — who spearheading a social media campaign to get Harvard University president Claudine Gay ousted over her muted response to antisemitism on the Ivy League school’s campus and over her subsequent plagiarism charges — managed to complete seventh on Bloomberg’s list last yr after failing to crack the highest 15 the yr before.
Ackman, who gained prominence as an activist investor, shifted to a “quieter approach” two years ago and barely touched his portfolio of just 10 stocks to record his massive haul, as calculated by Bloomberg after analyzing top hedge funds’ performance in addition to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
Bill Ackman, the billionaire founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, made $610 million in 2023 from 10 stocks, including Alphabet and Chipotle. Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
With the stock market roaring last yr, his eight-person advisory investment team helped the firm earn 26.7% gain across its positions, which include Google parent Alphabet, Chipotle and Hilton Worldwide, Bloomberg reported.
Ackman’s returns topped those of Citadel’s most important Wellington strategy and Millennium Management, which saw their portfolios advance 15.3% and nearly 10%, respectively, despite their founders bringing in a bigger windfall than Ackman.
Millennium founder Israel “Izzy” Englander, the very best earner on Bloomberg’s hedge fund boss’ pay rating, made $2.8 billion in 2023, while Citadel’s Ken Griffin nabbed the No. 2 spot due to his $2.6 billion income.
David Tepper of Appaloosa was third at $2.3 billion and Mets owner Steve Cohen was fourth, together with his Point72 Asset Management earning $1.6 billion.
The 15 managers on Bloomberg’s list — which also included Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, David Siegel of Two Sigma and AQR Capital Management’s Cliff Asness — earned a combined $15 billion.
Citadel’s Ken Griffin nabbed the No. 2 spot on Bloomberg’s rating of top-earning hedge fund managers in 2023 due to his $2.6 billion income, despite bringing in $1.5 billion lower than he did in 2022. Getty Images
Roughly one-third of Ackman’s 2023 haul got here from share-price gains in his publicly traded Pershing Square Holdings funds, in line with Bloomberg.
The opposite two-thirds of the 57-year-old’s earnings got here from performance gains at his private funds in addition to fees charged to clients.
In certainly one of his biggest moves in recent times, Ackman exited his six-year bet on Lowe’s earlier this month after the house improvement retailer earned greater than $1 billion for Pershing Square’s investors, Ackman wrote in an investor update.
Pershing Square also holds positions in Toronto-based Burger King-owner Restaurant Brands International, Universal Music Group, real-estate development company Howard Hughes Holdings and railway firm Canadian Pacific.
Representatives for Ackman at Pershing Square declined to comment.
Fellow hedge fund boss Chris Hohn of TCI Fund Management also scored big on a 10-US stock holdings portfolio.
The 15 hedge fund managers on Bloomberg’s list — which included Steve Cohen of Point72 and Cliff Asness of AQR Capital Management, amongst others — earned a combined $15 billion. REUTERS
Hohn — who, unlike Ackman, stays out of the highlight — earned nearly $1 billion, per Bloomberg’s calculations.
Just two of his positions — General Electric Co. and Canadian National Railway — comprised greater than 1 / 4 of his holdings, which gained 33% last yr, Bloomberg reported.
