With the departure of Robert McDonald as Procter & Gamble's chief executive, William A. Ackman has collected another big-game trophy.
(Around the time the consumer products giant announced that Mr. McDonald would retire, Mr. Ackman was speaking with a class of University of Chicago business school students, with his phone off. When he turned it back on, his voice mail in-box was overflowing with messages.)
But how is his hedge fund, Pershing Square Capital Management, doing over all? DealBook has tallied the progress of some of the activist investor's recent big bets:
Procter & GambleMr. Ackman emerged as a big investor in the consumer products giant last July, with the aim of trying to force the company to trim excess spending and become more efficient. Among the chief targets of the activist investor was Mr. McDonald, whom he criticized as unfocused.
At the time Mr. Ackman made his stake publicly known, Procter & Gamble shares were trading at about $63.70. By Thursday's market close, they were at $78.70, up nearly 24 percent.
Pershing Square owns about 27.9 million shares, making it one of the firm's biggest stock positions.
J. C. PenneyThe struggling department store remains one of Mr. Ackman's most prominent positions - and it remains a problematic investment for the hedge fund manager, who sits on its board. In the space of two months alone, the chain has ousted Ron Johnson, the onetime retail wunderkind that Mr. Ackman himself had wooed, and replaced him with a former chief executive.
That leader, Myron Ullman, is now rolling back some of the big changes that Mr. Johnson championed, including a bold move away from extensive price promotions. Meanwhile, Penney's most recent quarterly loss was also bigger than analysts had expected.
When Mr. Ackman first disclosed owning a 16.5 percent stake in J.C. Penney in the fall of 2010, the company's shares closed at $32.49. As of Friday morning, the shares were down 41 percent from then, at $19.17.
But hedge fund still appears to be keeping the faith, believing that the company's shift in strategy and firmer financial standing will eventually lead to a revival.
HerbalifeMr. Ackman remains firmly committed to taking down Herbalife, attacking it as a pyramid scheme ripe for a legal assault by federal regulators.
But so far, the nutritional supplements company appears to be resisting his efforts, having won supporters like the billionaire Carl C. Icahn eager to hammer the short-seller.
Shares in Herbalife fell nearly 10 percent on Dec. 20, the day Mr. Ackman unveiled his $1 billion bet against the company. But as of midmorning on Friday, they were trading at $47.74, up 42 percent since the day of the hedge fund manager's presentation.
Mr. Ackman has said that he expects the battle to take time, like his nearly decade-long wager against the bond insurance firm MBIA.
Burger KingMr. Ackman and Pershing took part in the unusual deal that took Burger King public again, roughly 18 months after the fast-food titan went private. The company's stock is doing fairly well, up 24 percent since returning to the public markets last summer.
Beam Inc. and Fortune Brands Home & SecurityBeam owes its existence as a standalone public company to Mr. Ackman, who pressed for a breakup of its onetime parent, Fortune Brands. The conglomerate opted in December 2010 to split itself up, selling off its golf business for $1.23 billion and spinning off its home and security products business.
The two successors to Fortune Brands have since traded well in the public markets. Fortune Brands Home & Security is up an astounding 232 percent since it began trading in September 2011. And Beam, the producer of Jim Beam liquor, is up 55 percent since the company became an independent concern on Oct. 4, 2011.
Canadian Pacific RailwayMr. Ackman waged a sometimes bitter fight against Canadian Pacific, seeking to replace the railway operator's chief and corporate strategy. Last May, the company's chief executive agreed to resign, and several of its board members chose not to seek re-election.
Since then, shares in Canadian Pacific that trade on the New York Stock Exchange have jumped 80 percent, to $132.12. As of March 31, Pershing Square owned a 13.8 percent stake, now worth $3.2 billion.
