HTZ Stock Hit Hard As Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Walks Away Citing ‘Bungled’ Equity Offering

• Hertz had never been a core Pershing Square holding but a small position.
• According to Pershing Square’s first quarter filing, the firm held 15.2 million shares of Hertz as of the end of March, then valued at around $70 million.
• In a conference call on Thursday, Ackman said the firm closed the “relatively small” position after Hertz’s June equity offering, which he termed bungled and unnecessary.

Hertz Global Holdings (HTZ) shares sold off sharply on Thursday after Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management revealed it had completely exited its position in the car-rental company.

HTZ stock was down 11% at the time of writing on Thursday.

Disclosure In Interim Report Triggers Selloff

“We exited our investments in Universal Music Group and Alphabet during the six-month period ended June 30, 2026, and exited Hertz in July 2026, the firm stated in its interim report published on August 13.

Hertz was one of the worst-performing stocks in Pershing Square’s investment portfolio this year through August 11, subtracting 1.1% from gross performance, according to the report.

The July 2026 sale removed the high-profile activist investor as a shareholder, prompting immediate selling pressure in HTZ shares. However, Hertz had never been a core Pershing Square holding but a small position.

According to Pershing Square’s first quarter filing, the firm held 15.2 million shares of Hertz as of the end of March, then valued at around $70 million, compared to the firm’s near $2.4 billion in Brookfield Corp and Amazon. In Alphabet, the firm held 32,376 shares as of Q1-end.

Rationale For HTZ Stake Sale

In a conference call on Thursday, Ackman said the firm closed the “relatively small” position after Hertz’s June equity offering of roughly 37 million shares at $2.70, tied to exchangeable notes. Ackman called the offering “bungled” and unnecessary.  

Pershing Square said Hertz had just posted solid first- and second-quarter results with strong liquidity, making the overnight share sale on “terrible terms” inexplicable. Ackman and CIO Ryan Israel said the move destroyed their confidence in management’s capital-allocation skills, despite still liking the operating team.

How Did HTZ Retail Traders React?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around HTZ stock stayed within the ‘extremely bullish’ territory over the past 24 hours, while message volume stayed at ‘extremely high’ levels.

A Stocktwits user predicted that HTZ will become a meme stock now that Ackman is out.

Another user expressed hopes for the stock stabilizing on the company’s next earnings call slated for early November.

HTZ stock has lost over 50% of its value year-to-date. 

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