Bill Ackman just loaded up on this S&P 500 stock in his FTSE 100-listed fund

Pershing Sq. (LSE:PSH) is a FTSE 100 funding belief that’s invested in a small handful of S&P 500 shares. In idea, this makes it extra riskier than your common fund.

In apply although, supervisor Invoice Ackman has pushed distinctive beneficial properties by this high-conviction technique. Final 12 months, Pershing Sq. delivered a complete shareholder return of 33.9%.

That was considerably larger than each the S&P 500 (17.9%) and FTSE 100 (25.7%). And since Ackman restructured the fund, the eight-year annualised return has been 23% versus the S&P 500’s 14.3%.

The Pershing Sq. share value is up practically 300% since IPO in 2017.

Placing cash to work

As talked about, Ackman isn’t a fan of broad diversification. As of early 2026, his prime 5 holdings made up round 73% of all the portfolio. 

These are world companies with deep moats and robust manufacturers like Amazon, Uber, Alphabet, and lodge group Hilton Worldwide.

Clearly, given Ackman’s observe file, it’s value keeping track of what he’s shopping for. And again in November, he stated Pershing was “seeing some very high-quality companies exhibiting up at very enticing costs“. He was able to put “some cash to work“.

On the time, I speculated that Ackman would possibly purchase Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META). The billionaire likes to snap up shares once they’re out of favour and Meta was down 20% since August. Furthermore, it was the most affordable Magnificent Seven inventory. 

Final week, Pershing revealed it had certainly purchased Meta inventory. In This autumn, it acquired $1.76bn value of shares, making the social media big a chunky 11.37% portfolio place.

Ought to I observe Ackman and make investments too?

Superintelligence push

Meta’s platforms want no introduction. Fb, Instagram and WhatsApp are woven into the every day actuality of many individuals worldwide. On the finish of 2025, the determine was 3.58bn customers.

If you’re working at such a scale, the promoting alternative is immense. In This autumn, advert impressions delivered throughout its apps jumped by 18%, with the typical value per advert rising by 6%.

This helped drive $201bn in income in 2025, a 22% year-on-year improve. The working margin was 41%, which reveals how worthwhile Meta is.

Nevertheless, whereas recognising the apparent high quality of the enterprise, I do have some issues. First, CEO Mark Zuckerberg goes all out to advance “private superintelligence for folks all over the world“.

This may see Meta spend as much as $135bn on AI in 2026 — considerably greater than the agency’s free money stream final 12 months ($43.6bn).

Penning this, I’m getting flashbacks to 2021/22 when Meta went all in on the metaverse, even altering the corporate identify to mirror that transfer. However this Actuality Labs enterprise has been a cash-incinerating flop to date, and I concern AI may not justify this excessive spending.

One other challenge is the rising transfer by governments to ban social media for underneath 16s, together with probably within the UK. This would possibly see Fb and Instagram lose relevance amongst youthful generations.

Deep low cost

Ackman disagrees, nevertheless. He stated: “We imagine Meta’s present share value underappreciates the corporate’s long-term upside potential from AI and represents a deeply discounted valuation“.

He could show proper, however I’m not shopping for. I desire Pershing Sq. itself,because it’s buying and selling at a 23% low cost to its internet asset worth.

I feel the FTSE 100 belief is value contemplating for buyers who imagine in Ackman’s high-conviction technique.