Nelson Peltz?s failure to get a seat on the board of directors at Disney (DIS:NYSE) has raised the question: are activist investors losing their touch?Peltz might have enjoyed success with earlier campaigns at Kraft Heinz (KHC:NASDAQ) and Wendy?s (WEN:NASDAQ), yet he sits alongside big names such as Pershing Square?s (PSH) Bill Ackman where campaigns have not gone their way.Peltz wanted to shake u

- Trust marginally underperformed S&P 500 in 2022- Market falls have created a 'great opportunity' for active managers- Fund has outperformed benchmark since summer of 2019Investment trust JPMorgan American (JAM) reported an 8.7% decline in net asset value (NAV) on a total return basis for the year to December 2022, marginally underperforming the S&P 500 benchmark which fell by 8% in sterling term

While many investors will talk about wanting to hold shares for the long term, it is interesting to learn why fund managers decide to make changes to their portfolio. This active management is often spurred by changes to the investment case or valuation.For example, Pershing Square Holdings' (PSH) manager Bill Ackman earlier this year held shares Netflix (NFLX:NASDAQ) for a mere three months. The

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman of FTSE 100 investment company Pershing Square Holdings (PSH) believes markets could have a better time in 2023 than in 2022. He says: 'Predicting the market in the short-term is a sucker's game' but believes the latter part of next year could be when stocks pick up.In a series of exclusive interviews with Shares' editor Daniel Coatsworth, Ackman outlined his belie

Given the poor recent performance of many investment trusts compared with the FTSE 100 index - which has held up relatively well this year and which investors can access via a tracker fund for a few basis points - the age-old issue of fees has reared its head again.The big question for investors in investment trusts which carry a high OCF (ongoing charge fee) is should they stick with them when th

The prospect of continued aggressive interest rate hikes to combat stubborn inflation pushed stock prices lower globally on Monday, while the euro slipped toward parity with the dollar.Investors were looking ahead to a meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. This starts on Thursday, with a keynote speech from US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Friday.Markets have been optimisti

London share prices started lower on Monday, at the start of a week expected to be dominated for markets by central bank policy.Investors are looking ahead to a meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming that starts on Thursday, with a keynote speech from Fed Chair Jerome Powell scheduled for Friday awaited for clues to the future pace and longevity of US interest rate hikes.'The message

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman, who forged his reputation as a vocal corporate agitator, now plans to work mainly behind the scenes with management and adopt a 'quieter approach' to force through change.Having delivered three years of strong double digit returns, the famed US hedge fund manager has informed investors that as corporate America already knows who he is, there is no need for Pershin

Under Donald Trump, geopolitics was focused on US-China trade ties and pacifying North Korea and Russia.President Biden is a different animal. He has the reputation of being less interventionist as the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan demonstrated.The subtle change to soft power and more diplomacy may have been a contributory factor in the timing of Putin's move on Ukraine.The invasion of Ukr

Investment company Pershing Square Holding's (PSH) shares continue to trade at a steep discount to NAV (net asset value).This discount stands at 29.73% at last count according to the AIC (Association of Investment Companies), one that perhaps reflects the hedge fund's high fees and complexity.Yet the discount looks overdone as the FTSE 100 fund, run by famed US investor Bill Ackman, continues to f

Investors are bracing for a difficult start for US stocks as investors return to equity markets following the Presidents Day holiday with Russia ordering troops into two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine in defiance of economic sanction threats from the West.Futures for the S&P 500, the most closely watched US market, point to 0.3% declines while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is seen falling

The drum beat of calls for change from investors in food to household goods conglomerate Unilever (ULVR) seems to be growing louder by the week if not by the day.The Financial Times reported over the weekend that after the firm's failed £50 billion bid for GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) consumer health business, two major shareholders are demanding a shake-up.German absolute return investor Flossbach vo

Two years ago, global stock markets experienced a significant sell-off as the pandemic caused mayhem. For some investors it was a time of stress and panic, but for many professional investors it provided a rare opportunity to pick up shares in good companies for a fraction of their value pre-Covid.Fund managers continued to talk about this fortuitous moment well into 2021, saying it paid to look b

Knock-out earnings from tech mega-caps Apple and Microsoft this week came as a welcome arm round the shoulder for embattled growth investors, with both companies beating Wall Street estimates for revenue and earnings for the three months to 31 December 2021.Fed chairman Jerome Powell refuses to be drawn on details but the markets are increasingly pricing a rate rise in March 2022, the first increa

Billionaire Bill Ackman, chief executive of hedge fund Pershing Square (PSH), announced to shareholders yesterday that he is now a top 20 investor in streaming company Netflix.Ackman's investment follows a 40%-plus decline in the share price in the last month, in part reflecting disappointing subscriber figures.Netflix's forecast of 2.5 million new customers this quarter was considerably below ana

Bill Ackman is one of the most famous investors active in the market today and his London-listed investment company Pershing Square Holdings (PSH) has enjoyed considerable success in recent years, generating a 58% return in 2019 and a 70% return in 2020, the latter helping it to gain a place in the FTSE 100 index.While its share price performance has lagged the MSCI World global stock market bench

In the same way investors can make a mint by backing a mythical '10-bagger' early doors, fund fanatics can make big gains by catching an investment trust on the way up, before it begins its rise through the market capitalisation ranks and potentially even joins the likes of Scottish Mortgage (SMT), 3i (III) or Pershing Square Holdings (PSH) in the FTSE 100.We can never know with certitude which in

There are lots of good reasons why investors should have allocations to the FTSE 250, London's high-flying index oriented to mid caps which provides a purer play on the domestic UK economy than the exporter-heavy FTSE 100.The FTSE 250 captures those growth stocks that have come up from the small cap ranks and therefore had a chance to establish themselves. And crucially, it can catch these 'second

Wall Street billionaire Bill Ackman's Pershing Square has purchased a 7.1% stake in Universal Music from French media conglomerate Vivendi for $2.8 billion or $21.78 per share and intends to raise its stake to as much as 10% next month.As Shares explained here, the exciting transaction gives shareholders in London-listed fund Pershing Square (PSH) exposure to the earnings of the music corporation

UK stocks advanced as the first half reporting season continued to show companies meeting or beating expectations in general.By 8.30am the benchmark FTSE 100 index was up 24 points or 0.3% to 7,185 points, not quite an intraday high but very close, driven by gains in financial and industrial stocks.The FTSE 250 mid-cap index hit yet another record high, albeit with a small gain of 22 points to 23,