PSUS Shorts Retreat as Ackman Fund Builds Momentum

Pershing Square USA enters the back half of August with an interesting reversal underway — short sellers are quietly retreating just as the fund's discount to net asset value appears to be narrowing, creating a backdrop that looks meaningfully more constructive than it did a month ago.

The positioning story here is one of unwinding rather than escalation. Short interest dropped roughly 19% on the week to around 260,000 shares — a sharp pullback from the 377,000 shares recorded on August 10. The borrow market echoes that de-escalation: cost to borrow eased to 1.21%, down more than 21% on the week, and availability has surged to nearly 886% — meaning there are almost nine shares available to lend for every one already borrowed. That is a loose borrow market by any standard, well above the 52-week tightest reading of around 195%. The ORTEX short score has also retreated steadily, falling from 35.9 on August 10 to 31.5 now, continuing a broader softening trend that began in late July. Taken together, the lending market is not exerting pressure on this name — there is no squeeze dynamic building, and the short position is too small in absolute terms to be a primary driver of price.

What has driven the fund higher is more straightforward. PSUS has gained nearly 8% over the past month, closing at $40.26, with a 2.6% gain on the week. The fund's price-to-book ratio of 0.72 reflects the persistent discount to NAV that has dogged closed-end vehicles of this type since launch, but the direction of travel is improving — the PB multiple has expanded roughly 4% over the past 30 days. The August 13 earnings release produced a 2.97% single-day gain, suggesting the market responded positively to whatever NAV update or portfolio disclosure accompanied it. A PE multiple of 7.9x and an earnings yield above 12.6% point to a vehicle still priced for skepticism rather than conviction.

The ownership picture is worth noting here, because it is unusual. The April 30 inception-related filings show the fund was seeded with enormous insider commitment: the CEO William Ackman bought at $50, alongside purchases aggregating over $280 million from affiliated entities and executives. Net insider buying over 90 days totals roughly 10.97 million shares worth approximately $544 million — virtually all of it at the $50 IPO price, compared to the current $40.26. Teacher Retirement System of Texas reported a new 10.15 million share position as of August 4, making it the largest institutional holder on record. A cluster of Israeli institutional buyers — Harel Insurance, Menora Mivtachim, and Migdal Mutual Funds — also appear in the top-holder list, collectively owning around 7.1% of shares. The breadth of institutional engagement from both domestic and overseas buyers is a signal that the discount is attracting value-oriented allocators, even if the fund has yet to close the gap to NAV entirely.

The dynamic to watch next is whether the NAV discount continues to compress as the stock consolidates above $40, and whether the institutional holder count — currently just 48 — begins to expand meaningfully from here.