Bill Ackman has been making a lot of moves recently. Last month, his hedge fund filed IPO paperwork for a dual offering, establishing a new closed-end Pershing Square fund while bringing his hedge fund management company to the public market. This month, he offered a takeover bid for Universal Music Group with plans to re-list it on a U.S. exchange. (Pershing Square already owns a sizable stake in Universal.)
But investors don’t have to invest directly with Ackman to take advantage of his best ideas. The value investor manages a portfolio with just 13 stock positions, and he generally holds positions for a long time. Investors can use public disclosures to learn about and capitalize on his best ideas. His portfolio is particularly concentrated among just a few names, with 39% of Pershing Square’s $17.7 billion portfolio held in the stocks of three stellar companies.
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1. Brookfield (14.5% of assets)
Brookfield (BN 0.45%) is establishing itself as an investment-led insurance company. Instead of seeking to profit from underwriting alone, it aims to increase insurance float as a means to access capital for equity investments. It’s the exact business model Warren Buffett used to grow Berkshire Hathaway, and it’s what Ackman himself is trying to emulate with Howard Hughes Holdings. The company held $120 billion in invested assets at the end of 2025, but it plans to grow that to $600 billion.
Brookfield already owns a broad portfolio beyond its burgeoning insurance business, including a large stake in Brookfield Asset Management (BAM 0.31%), which manages and invests its capital. The asset management business is set to deliver substantial earnings to Brookfield over the next few years. Due to the way it sets up investment funds, Brookfield first returns all capital to shareholders with a preferred interest rate before realizing any earnings for itself in the form of carried interest. Management expects to generate $6 billion in carried interest over the next three years and $6 billion more in the next two years after that, with another $13 billion over the five years that follow.
Today’s Change
(-0.45%) $-0.19
Current Price
$42.14
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$94B
Day’s Range
$42.02 – $42.76
52wk Range
$31.62 – $49.56
Volume
4.9M
Avg Vol
6M
Gross Margin
26.37%
Dividend Yield
0.59%
As Brookfield rapidly grows its invested capital over the next few years, combined with Brookfield Asset Management’s long track record of solid results, it should produce very good distributable earnings growth for investors. Ackman expects 25% growth this year, which is in line with management’s target from its investor day last September. With shares trading for less than 17 times last year’s distributable earnings, the stock looks like an absolute bargain right now.
2. Uber (12.3%)
Uber‘s (UBER 1.75%) stock is only loosely tied to how well its business is growing today. Instead, investors are heavily focused on how well the company can survive in the age of self-driving cars. Autonomous vehicle companies could displace Uber with their own apps, or Uber may emerge as a key demand aggregator for multiple companies. Ackman is fully in the latter camp.
Uber is already showing progress in becoming a partner for self-driving cars. It’s working with Alphabet‘s (GOOG 0.21%) (GOOGL 0.39%) Waymo in multiple cities, and it’s striking deals with smaller companies every month. Most recently, it started working with Motional in Las Vegas for autonomous rides.
Today’s Change
(-1.75%) $-1.26
Current Price
$70.55
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$145B
Day’s Range
$70.05 – $72.88
52wk Range
$68.46 – $101.99
Volume
394K
Avg Vol
20M
Gross Margin
32.89%
Uber’s scale is also a unique advantage. Not only does it already have the largest network of riders in the world, but it also has a ton of data on those riders, drivers, and each and every ride. Management aims to use that data to help improve autonomous vehicle technology with its new AV Labs.
Importantly, the network effect is positively impacting Uber’s earnings now. Monthly users increased 18% last year, and users are booking more trips each month. That led to 35% growth in earnings per share, and even faster growth in free cash flow. With the stock trading for less than 22 times forward earnings, Uber looks undervalued relative to its current growth trajectory. Whether it’s a buy for you depends on how you expect it to fare in the age of autonomous vehicles.
3. Alphabet (12.2%)
Alphabet has emerged as a leader in artificial intelligence across multiple areas, which have all fueled its financial results and should continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
Alphabet is best known for its Google search engine. And while many saw chatbots like ChatGPT displacing Google searches, management has adeptly integrated generative AI features into Google search results. Its AI Overviews have increased engagement with Search, driving users to ask new types of questions. Management notes that as it scales AI Overviews to practically every search result, it hasn’t seen a deterioration in monetization. As a result, Google Search ad revenue growth accelerated every quarter in 2025 as engagement grew.
The company’s Google Cloud platform is also seeing substantial demand. That’s fueled by its development of its leading AI model Gemini 3 as well as its custom Tensor Processing Units. Alphabet’s TPUs are more cost-efficient than general-purpose GPUs for some AI training and inference applications. Anthropic notably contracted to outfit its own data centers with Google’s TPUs. Strong demand pushed Alphabet’s Google Cloud revenue 48% higher last quarter, with significant operating margin expansion.
Today’s Change
(-0.21%) $-0.67
Current Price
$315.70
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$3.8T
Day’s Range
$314.56 – $319.43
52wk Range
$148.40 – $350.15
Volume
292K
Avg Vol
22M
Gross Margin
59.68%
Dividend Yield
0.27%
Alphabet has plenty of growth opportunities in AI. It struck a deal with Apple to use its Gemini foundation model in a revamped Siri set to launch this year. Meanwhile, demand for its AI services in Google Cloud continues to outstrip its ability to supply them. And reducing the costs and improving the responses in AI overviews could lead to strong margin improvement in Search.
Strong price performance has pushed the stock valuation to 28 times forward earnings estimates. But that may still undervalue the potential of AI to push its financial results higher going forward. Not to mention that the company’s Other Bets, including Waymo, could drive meaningful earnings results in the future.