Even billionaires have bad days at the office and despite announcing a new long position that sent the stock up more than 3 percent on the day, it’s probably safe to say that Bill Ackman won’t be counting Wednesday as one of his best days as a hedge fund manager.
He started the day with CNBC announcing that he had taken a 9.8 percent stake in Air Products and Chemicals APD. Even though the stock ended the day nearly three percent higher on the news, Ackman admitted that he made a mistake by dropping hints to Wall Street. Air Products figured it out and enacted a poison pill clause that kept him from taking a larger stake in the company.
Related: Bill Ackman Takes $2.2 Billion Stake in Air Products
But that was the highlight of his day. Around the mid-day, news that George Soros had amassed a significant long position in Herbalife HLF spread quickly. This sent the stock soaring. By the end of the day, it was up nine percent making Ackman’s losses totaling nearly 16 percent in the past five trading sessions.
But there are a lot of questions about this story. The Financial Times reported that Soros has had a three percent stake in Herbalife for three years. It went on to say that he has better things to do than get in the middle of petty hedge fund wars.
“Soros, of course, spends most of his time helping to educate central Europeans or galvanise Africans, rather than waving his proverbial at other big-name New York hedgies.”
This evening, the Ackman camp accused the hedge fund community, including Soros of working together to make him cover the position.
Finally, if his day wasn’t bad enough, his J.C. Penney JCP position lost more than 10 percent at the end of the day when the New York Post tweeted this:
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