Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Raised Stake In Canadian Pacific Railway $CP

Bill Ackman – Pershing Square reported on December 13th for a 14.2% activist stake in Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd (CP). As disclosed in the filing, Pershing Square now has 24.15 million shares in CP, up 14.7% from its previous filing on December 1st. According to the firm’s trading data, Pershing Square continuously bought the shares starting from December 1st. Most shares were traded at about $63. On Wednesday, CP is trading at $62.56, and is almost break-even in 2011.

According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund tracking list, twelve hedge funds had positions in CP in the third quarter. Pershing Square initiated his position during Q3 and revealed 4.04 million shares at the end of September. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies had 392 thousand shares at that time, after a 15% decrease.

Bill Ackman an expert in taking advantage of short term downward moves in prices. He is particularly successful at special situations investments. Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square has a very concentrated portfolio. Bill Ackman’s returns have displayed option-like characteristics in 2009 and 2010. His General Growth Properties investment is almost as big as John Paulson’s subprime shorts. In May 2009, he recommended GGP stock at the Ira Sohn Conference and the stock returned more than 1000% since then. As a result of that investment, Ackman had a great 2010, returning 29.7%. This is very important because one might be imitating 90% of Ackman’s holdings and getting below market returns while Ackman’s clients enjoy 30% returns.

According to Google Finance, Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd is a provider of rail and intermodal freight transportation services. The company provides rail and intermodal freight transportation services over a 14,800-mile network through its subsidiaries. Transports include bulk commodities, forest products and other energy related products. The company was founded in 1881 and is based in Calgary, Canada.