Billionaire hedge fund manager William Ackman chose the morning of the last day of July to announce his biggest investment ever, a $2.2 billion bet his Pershing Square hedge fund made to take a 9.8% stake in
An activist investor running a $13 billion hedge fund, Ackman is a big swinging type of investor who tries to hit huge home runs with each of his concentrated investments in his relatively narrow portfolio. But two of his biggest investments tanked on Wednesday.
The bad news for Ackman started in the late morning, when CNBC reported that legendary investor George Soros had taken a large stake in Herbalife, the controversial dietary supplements company that Ackman calls a pyramid scheme and is shorting in a massive way. That news prompted Herbalife’s stock to jump and it closed up 9% on the day at $65.50. The stock is now up 99% this year, which is the wrong direction for a man who has a $1 billion short position on the stock.
Then as the trading day was coming to a close, J.C. Penney, another big and troubled investment that Ackman has made, saw its shares fall by more than 10%. J.C. Penney shares tanked after the New York Post reported that big commercial lender CIT had "stopped supporting deliveries from smaller manufacturers to Penney stores."
According to reporter Charlie Gasparino of Fox Business News, lawyers for Ackman are asking the Securities & Exchange Commission to investigate whether the leaking of Soros’ position in
