Bill Ackman jabbed at Carl Icahn, touted his new Alphabet wager, and bemoaned the debt-ceiling debacle this week. Here are the key highlights.

• Bill Ackman poked at Carl Icahn, called out the debt-ceiling chaos, and touted his Alphabet wager.
• The Pershing Square chief talked up his other bets, including Lowe's, Hilton, and Howard Hughes.

Bill Ackman took aim at Carl Icahn, complained about the debt-ceiling debacle, and trumpeted his hedge fund's new Alphabet wager on Wednesday.

The billionaire investor and Pershing Square chief also touted several of his firm's other holdings, including Lowe's, Hilton, and Howard Hughes. Here are the highlights from Ackman's first-quarter investor call and critical tweet on Wednesday.

1. Targeting an old foe

Ackman and Icahn famously clashed over Herbalife, a nutritional-supplement company, in the mid-2010s. The Pershing Square chief opened fire at his former adversary, who is currently fending off short seller Hindenburg Research, on Twitter this week.

He compared Icahn's strategy of borrowing heavily against his Icahn Enterprises stock to fund his investments to Archegos — Bill Hwang's family office that relied massively on margin debt and blew up in 2021.

Ackman also questioned whether Icahn, who's been labeled a "corporate raider" for his activist-investing style, has any genuine friends.

2. Brushing off debt fears

The US could potentially default on its debt within weeks if the White House and Congress fail to strike an agreement to raise the federal-borrowing limit.

Ackman suggested a deal will most likely be reached, but cautioned there's still the possibility of disaster, according to a conference-call transcript provided by AlphaSense/Sentieo.

"The elephant in the proverbial room are the debt ceiling talks that remain unresolved," he said. "It's just not a good for America moment, and it could lead to a permanent increase in the cost of our debt."

Pershing Square holds some interest-rate hedges that could benefit if the US defaults and 30-year borrowing rates go up, but Ackman said he's hoping an agreement is reached instead.

3. Betting on Alphabet

Pershing Square's first-quarter portfolio update showed that it scooped up 10.3 million Alphabet shares in the first quarter. Ackman revealed his firm's stake is actually 20% to 25% larger than that, but it bought the additional shares using forward contracts that didn't have to be included in its 13F filing.

Ackman and his team built the position at an average cost of about $94 a share, he said. Both Alphabet's "A" and "C" shares traded around $121 as of Wednesday's close, suggesting they've already scored an almost 30% gain on the stock.

Include the extra 2 million-odd shares mentioned by Ackman, and Pershing Square holds about 12.3 million shares in total. That position was worth about $1.5 billion at the last count, representing a roughly $330 million gain for Ackman and his team on their wager.

Ackman also outlined why he's bullish on Google's parent company. Alphabet's earnings are tempered by losses on certain bets that might eventually pay off big, its cloud-computing division is at a scale where Amazon was able to make a substantial profit, and the tech giant has plenty of cash, he said.

"We're looking at it in a very conservative way, and we think it's a secular winner in advertising and likely AI as well," Ackman said.

Lowe's, Hilton, and Howard Hughes

Ackman underlined the strengths of some of Pershing Square's other holdings. Unlike most retailers, Lowe's owns most of its stores so it doesn't have to worry about rising rents or losing control of attractive locations, he said.

"When you think of a 14 multiple in the context of owning the real estate, it makes it an even cheaper story," he said, referring to the current valuation of Lowe's stock.

Ackman also highlighted Hilton's expertise in creating credible, successful brands. Moreover, he shrugged off worries about a downturn in commercial real estate, which have weighed on shares of Howard Hughes — a property developer that owns a bunch of office assets.

"We take the long view, and we're very happy to own more of the company at an attractive price," he said.