Bill Ackman Says No More Buybacks

Pershing Square’s big comeback offers a lesson on the drawbacks of share repurchases.

Bill Ackman (Christopher Goodney/Bloomberg)

Bill Ackman

(Christopher Goodney/Bloomberg)

Share buybacks are a common rallying cry of activist investors, but Bill Ackman’s latest annual letter to the shareholders of his publicly traded hedge fund, Pershing Square Holdings, shows how wrongheaded they can be.

Over the past few years, Ackman has done everything he can to boost the flagging share price of Pershing Square Holdings, which still trades at a 28 percent discount to its net asset value.

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