Bill Ackman isn’t the first person to shop at Lowe’s for a rehab project.
But can the 2,152-store chain help make over the activist investor’s spotty record of late?
The Pershing Square hedgie certainly hopes so — saying on Wednesday that he has taken a $1 billion stake in the struggling home-improvement chain, a source familiar with the situation told The Post.
The Lowe’s position, revealed at a New York conference that was closed to the media, sources said, caught some by surprise.
Ackman had pledged to avoid the retail sector after disastrous bets on JCPenney and Target.
News of the Ackman move came a day after the chain said it had wooed Chief Executive Marvin Ellison away from JCPenney. On Wednesday, Lowe’s said its sales in May were stronger than expected as it reiterated its profit outlook for the year, sending its shares up 10.4 percent, to $94.69.
It’s not the first time Ackman’s name has surfaced alongside bad news for Penney. In 2011, Ackman was infamously behind the misguided move to bring former Apple exec Ron Johnson to lead the struggling department store.
When asked if it had any involvement in Ellison’s move to Lowe’s, Pershing Square Capital declined to comment.
It was not immediately clear when Pershing Square began building its stake in Lowe’s, but the hedgie hinted at a new position on an investor call last week.
“We are in the process of building a position, and we expect it to become a significantly sized investment,” Ackman teased on the call.
Lowe’s shares spiked despite reporting on Wednesday that it missed analyst estimates for its first-quarter results.
“We are aware of reports that Pershing Square has invested in Lowe’s,” a spokesperson for the Mooresville, NC, company told The Post, adding that the company’s leadership is “committed to creating value for all shareholders, and will continue to take actions to achieve this objective.”
Ackman, who invested in Lowe’s in 2011, supports Lowe’s’ current management, including Ellison, who will take over early next month, and the board, believing that Lowe’s is a “great company,” according to a source.
Lowe’s’ performance has for many quarters trailed that of rival Home Depot.
Ackman isn’t the only activist rattling Lowe’s’ cages.
DE Shaw built up a stake in Lowe’s in January and was quickly successful in getting the company to name three new independent directors to its board.
Ackman’s new stake comes as his $8 billion hedge fund tries to shake off three consecutive years of investor losses and redemptions — much of it caused by a disastrous bet on Valeant Pharmaceuticals.
Pershing Square was up slightly — 0.1 percent — through May 15, according to the fund’s Web site.
Pershing, an $8 billion hedge fund, is invested in Chipotle Mexican Grill and Automatic Data Processing.
