Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management has taken a stake of approximately $1 billion in home improvement retailer Lowe’s Co., according to a source familiar with the matter.
Ackman unveiled the stake at an investment conference in New York on Tuesday. The news was first reported in the Wall Street Journal. A spokesman for Pershing Square declined to comment on the report.
Ackman said that he supports the retailer’s incoming chief executive, former Home Depot executive Marvin Ellison, who is leaving his post as chief executive of ailing retailer J.C. Penney Co. to take the job.
Ackman is not the only activist investor in the stock. Multistrategy hedge fund firm D.E. Shaw & Co. holds a stake of around 1 percent in the company and recently reached an agreement with Lowe’s in which three new directors joined the retailer’s board, the newspaper reported. The stock was up nearly 10 percent in midday trading on Wednesday.
