When Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management puts capital to work, Wall Street pays attention.
The billionaire investor’s firm just disclosed a brand new stake in one of the biggest names in payments. And the size of the bet is hard to ignore.
Regulatory filings show Pershing Square initiated multiple positions in companies across the financial segment. Let’s dive deeper.
Bill Ackman goes big on Visa stock
Pershing Square’s latest 13F filing, covering holdings as of June 29, 2026, shows a fresh position in Visa Inc.
The fund now owns 3.27 million shares of Visa (V) worth roughly $1.12 billion, accounting for 5.4% of the hedge fund’s portfolio.
It places Visa stock among Pershing Square’s larger holdings, just behind names like Uber, Brookfield Corp, Microsoft, and Amazon in overall portfolio weight.
Visa wasn’t the only new addition.
The same filing shows Pershing Square also opened a position in Mastercard, buying 2.12 million shares worth about $1.09 billion, or 5.26% of the portfolio.
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The fund also started a position in S&P Global, a company that plays a major role in credit ratings and financial data, worth roughly $1.06 billion.
All three positions show up as completely new in the filing.
Ackman built exposure across the broader financial infrastructure space in the same quarter, putting more than $3 billion combined into Visa, Mastercard, and S&P Global.
For a fund known for concentrated, high-conviction bets, opening three related positions at once suggests a deliberate view on where payments and financial data businesses are headed.
Visa’s business is firing on all cylinders
The timing lines up with a strong stretch for Visa.
In the company’s fiscal third-quarter 2026 earnings call on July 28, CEO Ryan McInerney said net revenue rose 14% year over year to $11.6 billion, with earnings per share up 11%, both ahead of expectations.
Quarterly payments volume grew 10% year over year in constant dollars to cross $4 trillion for the first time in company history, while processed transactions grew 10% to $72 billion.
Chief Financial Officer Chris Suh pointed to strength across the board.
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U.S. payment volume grew 10% year over year, a pace not seen since 2019 outside of the pandemic recovery bounce.
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Cross-border volume, excluding transactions within Europe, grew 12%.
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The company bought back $4.9 billion in stock during the quarter and paid out $1.3 billion in dividends.
