Bill Ackman's Q1 2026 13F moves
TL;DR
Pershing Square Capital Management's Q1 2026 13F-HR (filed 2026-05-15) discloses the year's biggest tech rebalance: a brand-new Microsoft position worth roughly $2.09B (15.3% of the $13.7B portfolio), a near-full exit of Alphabet (combined GOOG + GOOGL trimmed from about 14% of the portfolio in Q4 to under 1% in Q1), a full Hilton exit, plus adds in Amazon and Restaurant Brands. Eleven holdings throughout — Ackman's signature concentration intact. Every transaction is reconstructable from EDGAR using Form 13F-HR.
The Q1 2026 changes
New position
- Microsoft (MSFT) — brand-new position at about $2.09B, an immediate 15.3% of the portfolio. This is Pershing Square's largest single new-position entry since the firm built its Alphabet stake in 2023. The size alone signals high conviction: a 15%+ allocation on day one is the kind of sizing Ackman has historically reserved for positions he expects to hold multi-year.
Position adds
- Amazon (AMZN) — climbed from $2.22B in Q4 to $2.39B in Q1 (17.4% of portfolio, second-largest holding). AMZN was a new position in Q4 2025 at $1.28B; the consecutive-quarter add suggests the thesis is compounding rather than fading.
- Restaurant Brands International (QSR) — steady third-consecutive-quarter add: $1.47B → $1.56B → $1.67B. QSR now sits at 12.2% of the portfolio. Ackman has been involved with QSR (Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, Firehouse Subs) since the 3G Capital sponsorship era.
Full exits
- Hilton Worldwide (HLT) — held through 2025 at roughly $786–870M, fully exited in Q1 2026. Hotels and lodging now drop out of Pershing Square's book.
- Alphabet — effectively — both share classes still appear on the 13F (GOOG at $89.4M, GOOGL at $9.3M) but combined they are now under 1% of the portfolio versus ~14% in Q4. By dollar value this is the largest single-quarter reduction Pershing Square has ever made in a tech holding. Treating it as a near-full exit is the honest read.
Trims (positions reduced but held)
- Brookfield (BN) — modest trim from $2.82B to $2.42B. BN remains the largest position at 17.6% of the portfolio. The trim is consistent with rebalancing rather than thesis change.
- Uber (UBER) — trimmed from $2.47B to $2.15B, dropping from second-largest holding in Q4 to third in Q1. The position has been steadily declining: $2.97B → $2.47B → $2.15B across three quarters.
- Howard Hughes Holdings (HHH) — trimmed from $1.50B to $1.19B. HHH is Ackman's longstanding real-estate holding (he chairs the board). The position sizing is unusual to read — partial trims of a board-seat holding are noteworthy.
- Meta Platforms (META) — trimmed from $1.76B to $1.52B. Meta was a Q4 2025 new position; the Q1 trim is the first reduction since entry but the position remains material at 11.1%.
What the pattern signals
Q1 2026 is the most active tech rebalance in Pershing Square's recent history. The headline move is a swap inside megacap tech: Alphabet out (near full), Microsoft in (at 15.3%). Both companies are global-platform incumbents with dominant moats, but the bet structures differ — Alphabet's revenue is concentrated in advertising while Microsoft's is spread across cloud, productivity, and enterprise AI.
The Microsoft sizing — 15.3% on entry — is the second-largest single-position weighting in the portfolio after Brookfield. Ackman has historically built positions over multiple quarters; the day-one 15%+ allocation suggests either (a) the firm accumulated quietly before quarter-end and the 13F is the first public disclosure, or (b) the thesis is large enough to justify entering at full size immediately. Either interpretation signals high conviction.
Beyond the tech swap, the secondary pattern is continued consolidation around fewer themes: Brookfield + Amazon + Microsoft + Uber together represent 65.9% of the portfolio. The Hilton exit removes lodging/travel exposure entirely. Restaurant Brands (QSR) compounding suggests the franchise/quick-service thesis is steady. Howard Hughes (HHH) trimming is the only move that departs from Ackman's public narrative around the position — worth watching in subsequent quarters.
How to verify this yourself
Every position change above is reconstructable from public SEC EDGAR filings. Steps:
- Open Pershing Square Capital Management's 13F-HR filing history on EDGAR (CIK 0001336528).
- Compare the Q1 2026 13F (filed 2026-05-15) line-by-line against the Q4 2025 13F (filed Feb 2026).
- Position changes appear as: new CUSIP rows (new positions like Microsoft), increased share counts (adds like Amazon and QSR), decreased share counts (trims like Brookfield and Uber), removed CUSIP rows (exits like Hilton).
- Cross-reference with HoldLens's machine-readable /api/v1/snapshot/2026-Q1.json for a pre-computed summary across all 30 tracked managers including Pershing Square.
Our view
Six historical trades reconstructable from SEC EDGAR alone. Each essay traces the trade through 13F + Form 4 + DEF 14A filings.
Berkshire's 1988-89 KO purchase — $1.3B → ~$28B, untouched 37 years.
Berkshire's 2016-onward AAPL accumulation — largest equity position in firm history.
The $5B preferred + 700M-share warrants at $7.14 strike. ~$13B paper gain at 2017 exercise.
Appaloosa's $2B March 2009 distressed-bank bet (BAC + C + AIG). ~$7B returned. $4B Tepper payday.
Scion Capital's 2005-2008 subprime CDS trade — ~489% net return.
Pershing Square's 2012-2018 multi-year activist campaign.
September 16, 1992. The single-day macro trade that broke the Bank of England.
1997-2023 hold + board seat — the canonical long-duration value position.
2013-2016 long-side activism — public letter to Tim Cook, ~$2B realized gain.
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Recommended reading
The six books that map the mental model behind every 13F on this site.
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Not investment advice. Sourced from public SEC EDGAR Form 13F-HR filings (Pershing Square CIK 0001336528). All position changes verifiable from Form 13F-HR alone. 13F-HR data is a 45-day-lagged snapshot of long-only U.S.-listed positions — see 45-day lag explained and methodology.