Bill Ackman, founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, attends the Milken Conference 2025 in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 6, 2025.
Mike Blake | Reuters
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman said the current market dislocation has created one of the most attractive entry points for high-quality companies in years, urging investors to look past macro fears and lean into what he sees as deeply discounted opportunities.
“Some of the highest quality businesses in the world are trading at extremely cheap prices,” Ackman wrote in a post on X late Sunday. “One of the best times in a long time to buy quality. Ignore the bears.”
The founder of Pershing Square Capital Management pointed to what he described as a highly asymmetric setup in select names, singling out U.S. mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as “stupidly cheap,” with the potential to deliver outsized returns in a relatively short period.
Ackman’s bullish stance comes at a time when markets have been rattled by rising energy prices, sticky inflation concerns and shifting expectations around Federal Reserve policy. The recent bout of volatility has pushed valuations lower across a range of sectors, even as economic uncertainty continues to cloud the outlook.
“One of the most one-sided wars in history that will end well for the U.S. and the world. And we have the potential for a large peace dividend,” Ackman wrote.
President Donald Trump offered investors hope that an end to the war against Iran is drawing near. While the president added that “great progress has been made,” he also said that if a peace deal is not reached “shortly” and the Strait of Hormuz is not “immediately” reopened, the U.S. would attack key Iranian energy infrastructure.
Pershing Square Holdings, the firm’s London-listed closed-end fund, is down 19% year to date as of last Tuesday, its website showed.
Earlier this month, Pershing Square filed to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “PS,” a move that would give public investors direct exposure to the firm’s concentrated portfolio of large-cap investments.
The listing would effectively turn Ackman’s investment vehicle into a permanent capital structure, echoing the model used by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.