When AI congested transactions were liquidated, Ackman switched to “high quality cash flow”! Visa and Mastercard lead Pershing Square (PS.US) six new warehouses

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Pershing Square Inc. (PS.US), founded by billionaire and hedge fund legend Bill Ackman and personally at the helm, announced its first full quarter results report since becoming a listed company on Wednesday EST. The data showed that its profit performance exceeded the unanimous expectations of the market. In addition, the company also revealed that it has recently opened new positions with digital payment and bank card network giants Visa (V.US) and Mastercard (MA.US), as well as four other companies with low concentration of positions and very high cash flow quality for a long time.

According to financial data, Ackman's Pershing Square's distributable EPS (Distributable EPS) for the second quarter was $0.14, higher than analysts' average expectation of $0.12, while at the same time increasing from $0.12 in the same period last year. The company's total revenue for the second quarter was $54.2 million, lower than the market's unanimous forecast of 75.8 million US dollars, but higher than the 53.2 million US dollars in the second quarter of last year. Management fee income increased slightly from $50.8 million in the same period last year to $54.2 million.

In terms of other key performance data, revenue (fee-related revenue) associated with asset management expenses increased 25% year over year to $68 million. Profit related to expenses increased 24% year over year to $56.1 million. The profit margin declined slightly to 82.4% from 82.6% in the second quarter of last year.

Total expenses under GAAP standards in the second quarter surged from $33 million in the same period last year to US$144.3 million. Among them, profit sharing partner compensation jumped from US$8.45 million to US$69.3 million, and employee compensation and benefits expenses soared from US$3.93 million to US$50.3 million.

According to financial data, in the second quarter, Pershing Square's total asset management (AUM) grew from US$26.6 billion to US$32.5 billion, including US$5.63 billion in capital inflows, an increase of US$829 million due to changes in market value, and outflows of US$573 million.

Ackman's latest investment plan revealed! Visa and Mastercard lead the top six new warehouses

According to information, during the performance conference, Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman (Bill Ackman) and Chief Investment Officer Ryan Israel discussed new investments made by the company's funds since the beginning of this year. These include bank card network giants Visa (V.US) and Mastercard (MA.US), streaming media giant Netflix (NFLX.US), market analysis and credit rating company S&P Global (SPGI.US), exchange operator Intercontinental Exchange (ICE.US), and medical giant Alcon (ALC.US), which focuses on eye treatment.

Ackman and Israel said, “By combining these new stock investment positions with our existing holdings — which focus on companies such as Microsoft (MSFT.US), Amazon (AMZN.US), Meta (META.US), Uber (UBER.US), Brookfield (BN), and Restaurant Brands (QSR.US), which dominate a market segment and are growing rapidly — we believe that the current portfolio is both in terms of the fundamental quality of the company and future profit growth The prospects are all very attractive, so we are well positioned to deliver strong returns in the future.”

Pershing Square Inc. (PS) shares rose 1.7% in US after-market trading, while Pershing Square USA (PSUS) shares rose slightly by 0.7% after the market.

Pershing estimates that the current core portfolio has an average price-earnings ratio of about 19 times, but it corresponds to an EPS CAGR of about 20% in the next 3-5 years, forming a more favorable “growth/valuation ratio” compared to the S&P 500 valuation of about 20 times the EPS CAGR of 12%. According to Ackman, the long-term trend in the AI computing power industry still holds true, but at the moment when AI hash-themed stocks are experiencing a wave of deleveraging and crowded positions, the next stage of excess earnings may come from high-quality compound interest assets with low momentum, low capital dependency, high cash flow, high ROIC, and can still use AI to enhance growth to a certain extent. This is a sign that Visa, Mastercard, and even iCE and S&P Global are being included in the portfolio most worthy of market attention.

Pershing Square Inc is essentially Ackman's “asset management company/management platform” — it owns the investment manager Pershing Square Capital Management. Pershing Square (PS.US) shareholders mainly share management fees, profit sharing, and the economic benefits brought by future AUM expansion of the entire asset management business; while Pershing Square USA (PSUS.US) is an American managed by this management platform Listed closed investment funds. Investors choose to buy PSUS, which essentially directly buys the stock portfolio managed by Ackman and its net asset value (NAV) performance.

In the simplest terms, if investors choose to buy Pershing Square (PS.US) = “buy and are firmly optimistic about Ackman's entire asset management business” and buy Pershing Square USA (PSUS.US) = “indirectly handing over the money to Ackman for investment or buying his publicly traded fund portfolio on the secondary market”, although the two did a joint IPO in 2026, they traded independently on the NYSE since then.

As AI crowded trading gradually ebbs down, Ackman is shifting from high beta to high cash flow compound interest assets

Ackman's latest position and investment layout highlights that his investment focus is beginning to shift to high-cash flow compound interest assets, that is, the accelerated spread from AI computing power themes where leveraged positions have reached extreme levels in history and high-beta momentum transactions with extremely high position congestion to “high-quality cash flow compounding+misplaced valuation alpha.”

The S&P 500 rose about 10% in the first half of 2026, but the two “AI sales shovels” sectors of semiconductors and technology hardware contributed about 85% of the index's increase, while more than 90% of S&P's constituent stocks contributed less than 2%. After that, a Bank of America fund manager survey in early July showed that up to 82% of respondents viewed semiconductors as the most crowded trading theme in the market and the most concentrated leveraged positions. The SOX Index (Philadelphia Semiconductor Index) then retreated more than 20% from its June high.

Individual stock leveraged ETFs, short-term options, and financing positions have further amplified the impact of deleveraging. It is under this extreme market breadth (Market Breadth) imbalance that Ackman said Pershing was able to take advantage of fluctuations to deploy new capital of nearly $5 billion — the essence is not risk-off (selling off high-beta and high-density risky assets) to defend, but rather from an AI computing infrastructure with strong fundamentals and extreme leveraged positions, looking for “uncrowded” AI computing power infrastructure with strong fundamentals but prices that reflect the value of long-term cash flow Quality assets”.

Visa, Mastercard, S&P Global, and ICE particularly clearly embody this investment framework of “buying high-quality fundamental stocks at misprices/collapse prices”, but Ackman's strategy is more like a microcosm of the 2026 market style from a “single AI computational power+momentum strategy” to “abundant cash flow+low concentration of positions and high fundamental alpha width expansion”, rather than a denial of the super-bull market surrounding AI.

Ackman is still heavily invested in Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta, and clearly believes that Microsoft's AI capital expenditure is a reasonable growth investment, and that Meta is also one of the clearest AI beneficiaries; the newly added Netflix, Visa, Mastercard, S&P Global, ICE, and Alcon have expanded the combined profit sources from single momentum and AI beta to payments, large financial giants and transaction infrastructure, streaming media, and healthcare.

Visa and Mastercard are essentially global payment “toll booths” with extremely low capital: no significant credit risk, extremely low marginal transaction costs, and a cash flow conversion rate of over 100%; Pershing expects long-term double-digit revenue growth, and EPS has compound growth potential of about 16% and 18%, respectively. Previously, the market provided an entry window due to the stablecoin wave, the AI smart business model (Agentic Commerce), and regulatory concerns that reduced valuations to about 22 times the profit over the next 12 months. S&P Global and ICE are closer to “financial infrastructure (Financial Infrastructure)” — ratings, indices, pricing, data, trading, and clearing have high entry barriers, recurring revenue, and strong network effects; ICE was even bought after the stock price fell about 21% the previous year and the valuation was reduced from 25 times to about 17 times.