ClaimsBill Ackman

“We sold our shares in S&P as the large stock price increase during our accumulation period prevented us from establishing a meaningful position in the company.”

Bill Ackman, Pershing Square investment manager's report 2018 Annual Report Year Ended December 31, 2017 - Letter (Pershing Square Holdings) archived copy

Factual Economics and markets

Pershing Square sold its S&P Global shares because a large stock price increase during accumulation prevented it from building a meaningful position.

Own records only Only the person's or their organisation's own records speak to it, so it is not scored.

Factual: Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?

Said for an organisation they lead or work for; it counts on both records.

Reasoning

Reason for selling is the firm's own rationale, though the stated explanation is in its letter.

Cite this claim

Bill Ackman, “Pershing Square sold its S&P Global shares because a large stock price increase during accumulation prevented it from building a meaningful position.” (said 2018). Verdict: own records only. Reliability API, claim c_b164a67df5ff, method 0.1.0+c876030c, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_b164a67df5ff

This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.

Reply to this claim

For Bill Ackman, or someone speaking for them: a correction or counter-evidence. Replies are read before anything is shown; an approved reply shows your name, role, date, statement and link. Your email address is never shown and is deleted 30 days after the decision (privacy).

More factual claims by Bill Ackman

  1. Resolved false Factual 1 October 2026
    “the average life of an S&P 500 CEO is probably, I don’t know, 4 years or 3 years, 3 and a half years or something like this.”

    Ackman estimated, with heavy hedging, that the average tenure of an S&P 500 CEO is probably about 3 to 4 years.

  2. Mostly true Factual 1 October 2026
    “SpaceX is near monopoly in terms of low-cost space launch.”

    SpaceX is a near monopoly in low-cost space launch.

  3. Resolved true Factual 1 October 2026
    “We created it out of the bankruptcy of General Growth.”

    Howard Hughes was created out of the bankruptcy of General Growth as a spinoff of its other assets.

  4. Resolved true Factual 1 October 2026
    “2 years later, we emerged from Chapter 11.”

    General Growth emerged from Chapter 11 two years after Pershing Square's investment.

  5. Resolved true Factual 1 October 2026
    “The company’s got a 4 billion dollar market cap, and the goal is to build it into a trillion-dollar thing over time, compounding.”

    Howard Hughes Holdings has a market capitalisation of about $4 billion.

All of them

Verdicts are made automatically; how verdicts are made.