Bill Ackman's 7-Stock Portfolio Is Quietly Beating the Market. Here's What's Inside It. James Brumley, The Motley Fool Thu, August 6, 2026 at 7:05 PM GMT+2 4 min read NVDA ^GSPC PSH.L PS Surprisingly enough, most hedge funds habitually underperform the broad market. That's what makes any of them that reliably beat the S&P 500 of such interest. And that's what makes Bill Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management (NYSE: PS) so interesting right now. Although it lagged early this year, it has outperformed -- albeit unevenly -- the broad market since its launch in 2004. Moreover, its flagship fund Pershing Square Holdings' (OTC: PSHZF) positions are leading the marketwide bullish charge again right now. Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue » Even more incredible is that rather than diversifying this portfolio, a mere seven stocks account for 98% of the fund's total value. Here's a rundown of those seven. Ackman's seven Just because Ackman likes them doesn't necessarily mean they're all right for your portfolio. He and Pershing's investors are accustomed to inconsistent performance. You may not be able to afford such uncertainty and prolonged dry spells from your portfolio. Still, there's nothing wrong with poaching an idea or two from his picks if they make sense for you. Here are the seven. Company % of Portfolio $Value Entry Date Brookfield Corp. (NYSE: BN) 17.6% $2.4 billion Q2-2024 Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) 17.4% $2.4 billion Q2-2025 Uber Technologies (NYSE: UBER) 15.7% $2.2 billion Q1-2025 Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) 15.3% $2.1 billion Q1-2026 Restaurant Brands Intl. (NYSE: QSR) 12.2% $2.1 billion Q4-2014 Howard Hughes Holdings (NYSE: HHH) 12.7% $1.8 billion Q4-2025 Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) 11.1% $1.5 billion Q3-2023 Data sources: Hedge Follow, Value Insider. Microsoft is arguably the proverbial pick-of-the-litter right now, since it may well have hit bottom after a sizable sell-off from last August's peak. As Ackman himself recently explained in a post on X in May, this pullback dragged MSFT shares down to a "compelling valuation" that didn't reflect the true value of Microsoft's cloud business or its office-productivity software. Notably, Ackman sold a solidly performing Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) to make room for the software giant. Microsoft stock recently soared too, reaching multi-month highs in response to recently released fiscal fourth-quarter numbers that are showing more promise than shareholders were anticipating. Story Continues Ackman had this to say about shares of Facebook parent Meta (now its second-youngest position, purchased in Q1): "We believe concerns around META's AI-related spending initiatives are underestimating the company's long-term upside potential from AI." Bill Ackman. Image source: Getty Images. Some of Pershing's struggling, older holdings are finally perking up as well. Its stake in e-commerce outfit Amazon raced to a record high late last month in response to solid Q2 cloud computing results, for instance. Something to consider even if the decision is "no" Not every name in the portfolio is doing nearly as well as these are. Then again, not every name needs to. Two or three great trades can handle most of the heavy lifting that most investors need from their portfolio. That being said, it's not as if these recent winners are guaranteed to dish out any bullish follow-through either. Whatever the case, the fact that Bill Ackman chose all of these names -- and is deciding to stick with them -- speaks volumes. You just need to decide for yourself if you can digest the same risk and volatility that he and Pershing's shareholders can. Should you buy stock in Microsoft right now? Before you buy stock in Microsoft, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Microsoft wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $400,155!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,345,502!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 956% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 214% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 6, 2026. James Brumley has positions in Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Brookfield Corporation, Howard Hughes, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool recommends Restaurant Brands International. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Bill Ackman's 7-Stock Portfolio Is Quietly Beating the Market. Here's What's Inside It. was originally published by The Motley Fool {"contentId":"a1423698-c577-31bc-855f-7d2bfa910003","canonicalUrl":"https://www.fool.com/investing/2026/08/06/bill-ackmans-7-stock-portfolio-is-quietly-beating/","owningPropertyUrl":"https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/bill-ackmans-7-stock-portfolio-170500155.html","providerId":"motleyfool.com","commerceSiteId":"","site":"finance","region":"US","lang":"en-US","tags":[,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,],"categories":[,,,],"commerceArticleType":""} Terms and Privacy Policy EU DSA contact Privacy & Cookie Settings More Info
