Ackman's Pershing Square Loads Up On Visa (V), Sells Dr Pepper (DPS) and Wendy's (WEN)

Bill Ackman's Pershing Square hedge fund released its 13F for the quarter ended December 31, 2008 yesterday. Notably, Ackman bought more of the credit card processor Visa (NYSE: V) but sold out of MasterCard (NYSE: MA). He also significantly cut his stakes in Dr Pepper Snapple (NYSE: DPS) and Wendy's/Arby's (NYSE: WEN).

Ackman had some big winner in 2008, but also some big losers. Winners included short sales on MBIA (NYSE: MBI), Ambac (NYSE: ABK), Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) which were all destroyed from the credit/housing blow-up. Winning longs included Longs Drugs, which was sold to CVS (NYSE: CVS). Ackman's losers centered mainly around retail. Ackman's special fund to buy shares in Target (NYSE: TGT) has been destroyed, down a reported 90%. Other retail positions in Borders (NSYE: BGP) and Barnes and Noble (NYSE: BKS) were also big losers.

Summary of Major Changes in Ackman's Pershing Square Portfolio:

• Showed new large stake in General Growth Properties (NYSE: GGP) (already known through 13D)
  
• Raised stake in Visa (NYSE: V) by over 4 million share to 7.1 million shares
  
• Changes in Target (NYSE: TGT) position
  
• Slightly bumped stake in EMC (NYSE: EMC) to 58.6 million shares, or about 2.9% of the company
  
• Lowered stake in Dr Pepper Snapple (NYSE: DPS) by over 11 million shares to 10.8 million shares
  
• Lowered stake in Wendy's/Arby's (NYSE: WEN) by over 8.5 million shares to 47 million shares.
  
• Sold out of 570K share stake of MasterCard (NYSE: MA)
  
• Sold out of AIG (NYSE: AIG) (this was already known)
  
• Sold out of Barnes and Noble (NYSE: BKS) (this was already known)
  
• Maintained Borders (NYSE: BGP) stake (already known through 13D)

Two of Ackman's holdings, Longs Drug (NYSE: LDG) and Wachovia (NYSE: WB), were sold during the quarter.

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