Pershing Square (LSE:PSH) is a FTSE 100 investment trust that’s invested in a small handful of S&P 500 stocks. In theory, this makes it more riskier than your average fund.
In practice though, manager Bill Ackman has driven exceptional gains through this high-conviction strategy. Last year, Pershing Square delivered a total shareholder return of 33.9%.
That was significantly higher than both the S&P 500 (17.9%) and FTSE 100 (25.7%). And since Ackman restructured the fund, the eight-year annualised return has been 23% versus the S&P 500’s 14.3%.
The Pershing Square share price is up nearly 300% since IPO in 2017.
Image source: Meta Platforms
Putting money to work
As mentioned, Ackman isn’t a fan of broad diversification. As of early 2026, his top five holdings made up around 73% of the entire portfolio.
These are global businesses with deep moats and strong brands like Amazon, Uber, Alphabet, and hotel group Hilton Worldwide.
Clearly, given Ackman’s track record, it’s worth keeping an eye on what he’s buying. And back in November, he said Pershing was “seeing some very high-quality businesses showing up at very attractive prices“. He was ready to put “some money to work“.
At the time, I speculated that Ackman might buy Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META). The billionaire likes to snap up shares when they’re out of favour and Meta was down 20% since August. Moreover, it was the cheapest Magnificent Seven stock.
Last week, Pershing revealed it had indeed bought Meta stock. In Q4, it acquired $1.76bn worth of shares, making the social media giant a chunky 11.37% portfolio position.
Should I follow Ackman and invest too?
Superintelligence push
Meta’s platforms need no introduction. Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are woven into the daily reality of many people worldwide. At the end of 2025, the figure was 3.58bn users.
When you’re operating at such a scale, the advertising opportunity is immense. In Q4, ad impressions delivered across its apps jumped by 18%, with the average price per ad rising by 6%.
This helped drive $201bn in revenue in 2025, a 22% year-on-year increase. The operating margin was 41%, which shows how profitable Meta is.
However, while recognising the obvious quality of the business, I do have some concerns. First, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is going all out to advance “personal superintelligence for people around the world“.
This will see Meta spend up to $135bn on AI in 2026 — significantly more than the firm’s free cash flow last year ($43.6bn).
Writing this, I’m getting flashbacks to 2021/22 when Meta went all in on the metaverse, even changing the company name to reflect that move. But this Reality Labs venture has been a cash-incinerating flop so far, and I fear AI might not justify this extreme spending.
Another issue is the growing move by governments to ban social media for under 16s, including possibly in the UK. This might see Facebook and Instagram lose relevance among younger generations.
Deep discount
Ackman disagrees, however. He said: “We believe Meta’s current share price underappreciates the company’s long-term upside potential from AI and represents a deeply discounted valuation“.
He may prove right, but I’m not buying. I prefer Pershing Square itself,as it’s trading at a 23% discount to its net asset value.
I think the FTSE 100 trust is worth considering for investors who believe in Ackman’s high-conviction strategy.
This story originally appeared on Motley Fool
