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 observe although, supervisor Invoice Ackman has pushed distinctive features by way of this high-conviction technique. Final yr, 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 almost 300% since IPO in 2017.
Picture supply: Meta Platforms
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 your entire portfolio.
These are world companies with deep moats and robust manufacturers like Amazon, Uber, Alphabet, and resort group Hilton Worldwide.
Clearly, given Ackman’s monitor document, it’s price maintaining a tally of what he’s shopping for. And again in November, he mentioned Pershing was “seeing some very high-quality companies exhibiting up at very engaging 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 fall, it acquired $1.76bn price of shares, making the social media large 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 day by day actuality of many individuals worldwide. On the finish of 2025, the determine was 3.58bn customers.
While you’re working at such a scale, the promoting alternative is immense. In This fall, advert impressions delivered throughout its apps jumped by 18%, with the common 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 exhibits how worthwhile Meta is.
Nonetheless, whereas recognising the plain high quality of the enterprise, I do have some considerations. First, CEO Mark Zuckerberg goes all out to advance “private superintelligence for individuals 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 move final yr ($43.6bn).
Scripting this, I’m getting flashbacks to 2021/22 when Meta went all in on the metaverse, even altering the corporate identify to replicate that transfer. However this Actuality Labs enterprise has been a cash-incinerating flop to this point, and I worry AI won’t justify this excessive spending.
One other situation is the rising transfer by governments to ban social media for beneath 16s, together with presumably within the UK. This would possibly see Fb and Instagram lose relevance amongst youthful generations.
Deep low cost
Ackman disagrees, nevertheless. He mentioned: “We consider Meta’s present share value underappreciates the corporate’s long-term upside potential from AI and represents a deeply discounted valuation“.
He might show proper, however I’m not shopping for. I favor Pershing Sq. itself,because it’s buying and selling at a 23% low cost to its internet asset worth.
I believe the FTSE 100 belief is price contemplating for traders who consider in Ackman’s high-conviction technique.
