Pershing Square Holdings, an investment holding company, released its first half 2025 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the first half of 2025, the company’s NAV per share increased by 15.5% and 17.7% year-to-date through August 19, 2025. The company’s share price rose by 9.9% and 16.5% during these periods, while the S&P 500 increased by 6.2% and 9.9%, respectively. The first half of 2025 was characterized by complex macroeconomic and geopolitical dynamics, contributing to broad uncertainty. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.
In its second-quarter 2025 investor letter, Pershing Square Holdings highlighted stocks such as Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN). Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) provides consumer products, advertising, and subscription services through online and physical stores. The one-month return of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) was 1.28%, and its shares gained 27.04% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On September 03, 2025, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) stock closed at $225.99 per share, with a market capitalization of $2.41 trillion.
Pershing Square Holdings stated the following regarding Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Earlier this year, we initiated a position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), a company we have long studied and admired. Amazon operates two of the world’s great, category-defining franchises: its Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud business and its e-commerce retail operations. Both AWS and the company’s retail operations are supported by decades-long secular growth trends, occupy dominant positions in their respective markets, and have significant long-term opportunities for margin expansion. Moreover, despite operating in different industries, both businesses share the core tenets of Amazon’s ethos: a relentless focus on the customer, leveraging scale to be the lowest-cost provider, and continually reinvesting to improve their value proposition.
AWS, which accounts for approximately 60% of Amazon’s total profits, is the leader in the highly concentrated cloud hyperscaler market with over 40% market share. As the first mover in the space, AWS is exceptionally well-positioned to capitalize on the multi-decade shift of IT workloads from on-premise to cloud solutions. Currently, only about 20% of IT workloads are estimated to be hosted in the cloud, a percentage that is expected to steadily increase and eventually invert over time. Similarly, Amazon’s retail business is powered by strong secular growth in e-commerce adoption. In the U.S., for example, e-commerce sales penetration has doubled in the past decade yet still accounts for less than 20% of total retail sales. Within this rapidly expanding market, Amazon holds a leadership position by offering consumers the widest selection, the lowest prices, and the fastest delivery, all enabled by a one-of-a-kind logistics network that fulfills over $700 billion in gross merchandise value annually…” (Click here to read the full text)
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is in first position on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 335 hedge fund portfolios held Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) at the end of the second quarter compared to 328 in the previous quarter. In Q2 2025, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) achieved global revenue of $167.7 billion, representing a 12% year-over-year growth excluding the impact of foreign exchange. While we acknowledge the risk and potential Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and shared the list of stocks that Jim Cramer recently discussed. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.