Bill Ackman Catches Another Falling Magnificent Seven Knife -- Will It Work This Time? - Amazon.com (NASDA

Legendary investor Bill Ackman is known for years of activist investing with big stakes in companies and pushing for changes. In recent quarters, Ackman has shown a preference to buying Magnificent Seven stocks he deems on sale. The most recent purchase continues to fall. Will this new buy be different? Ackman Buys Microsoft Stock "We will disclose a new position in Microsoft, a company we have followed for many years now offered at a highly compelling valuation," Ackman tweeted. Ackman said the tech giant will be a "core holding" in Pershing Square USA (NYSE:PSUS), which is now publicly traded. "Microsoft operates two of the most valuable franchises in enterprise technology, which account for approximately 70% of the company's overall profits: M365 and Azure." Ackman highlighted the large customer base of 450 million people that use Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams on a daily basis, all units of M365. For Azure, Ackman said the unit is the world's second-largest hyperscaler cloud platform, trailing only Amazon.com's AWS. "Both M365 and Azure are underpinned by Microsoft's unparalleled enterprise distribution and the security, compliance, and identity infrastructure it has built and refined over decades." Outside of the two key units, Ackman also highlighted Microsoft's ownership of LinkedIn, Xbox, Bing, Edge Browser, and Activision Blizzard. The investor also believes that Microsoft's stock price may not reflect the company's estimated 27% ownership stake in OpenAI, which Ackman estimates is worth $200 billion based on recent valuations. Main investor concerns for Microsoft are the competitive positioning of M365 against AI offerings and the strength of Azure's growth. Ackman sees both concerns as overstated, with Microsoft showing strong growth and investment in its core platforms. Ackman did not disclose what price point he bought Microsoft stock at, but said the purchases began in February as shares declined after the second-quarter financial results. Microsoft stock traded between $381.71 and $430.74 in the month of February. Ackman said the purchases were done with Microsoft stock trading at around 21 times forward earnings estimates, below the company's historical trading average in recent years. Ackman's Magnificent Seven History "We have found occasional opportunities to acquire some of the most dominant long-term compounding franchises at attractive valuations," Ackman said on social media. Ackman added to the Amazon position in the fourth quarter, while cutting the stake in Alphabet stock. Meta stock has fallen since the end of the fourth quarter, with shares down 6.1% year-to-date in 2026. The position, which Ackman also highlighted ahead of a 13F filing, is likely down significantly for Pershing Square based on the timing of the purchase. At the end of the fourth quarter, the Magnificent Seven stocks made up a significant portion of the overall fund. Amazon.com: $2.2 billion, 14% of fund Alphabet Class C: $1.9 billion, 13% of fund Meta Platforms: $1.8 billion, 11% of fund Alphabet Class A: $212.3 million, 1.4% of fund The new position in Meta ranked fifth at the end of the fourth quarter. Calling Microsoft a core holding will make it interesting to see how high it ranks on the leaderboard. Investors will also be closely watching the latest 13F filing to see if positions in Meta, Alphabet or Amazon.com were changed in the fourth quarter. While Ackman praised his timing getting into Amazon and Alphabet in his long social media post, his timing in Meta hasn't paid off as nicely. The latest purchase in Microsoft comes with shares down and investor attention turning elsewhere. Photo created by Midjourney, Dall-E Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.