Bill Ackman’s hedge fund Pershing Square Capital fell for the third month in a row, weighed down by his large stake in Valeant Pharmaceuticals, according to a report in Gurufocus.com. The drug company is under investigation by the New York Attorney’s Office over price increases, along with two former executives also being investigated for alleged fraud. Valeant is Ackman’s largest holding, and the company’s rise helped propel Pershing Square’s annualized returns of 20.8 percent from its inception in 2004 to 2014. The slide in the fund over the past two years is “unprecedented” in Pershing Square’s history and has wiped out 40 percent of the gains the fund made in 2014. It’s not stopping Ackman from moving the business into a new 67,000-square-foot space occupying the top two floors of a new development on Manhattan’s West Side, complete with a rooftop garden and tennis courts, a must-have amenity for the tennis fanatic.
CFP Board Creates Partnership to Boost Women CFPs
The Certified Financial Planner Board Center for Financial Planning is partnering with Rock the Street, Wall Street to promote financial planning to female high school students, according to Accounting Today. The program sets up CFP Board Women's Initiative Advocates as mentors and instructors during five-week career programs for high school girls. The first program premiered in October in Long Island City, New York, where the students participated in hour-long sessions once a week. The program concludes with the "Wall Street Experience," with the students visiting their mentors' Manhattan offices. "The numbers show we are making a difference," said Maura Cunningham, founder and executive director of Rock the Street, Wall Street. "Girls who have participated in our workshops have had an 84 percent increase in their comprehension of financial concepts. They are changing their college searches and major/minor declarations to include finance, accounting and business where before they hadn't even considered these fields. Through our programming, girls can have a better chance at improving their lives, their households, their communities and the financial services industry."
Millennials report the highest rates of anxiety and depression out of any generation, according to the 2016 ComPsych StressPulse Report, with many millennials identifying student loan debt and finding their first job as major causes of stress. Across generations, 24 percent of workers say financial issues are the biggest stressors at home. But the report also illustrates that not everyone is worried about money. In fact, employees of different age groups report very different causes of stress. For example, Generation Xers are more worried about relationship and familial issues than any other group, while baby boomers are the only generation to cite significant stress levels due to bereavement.
