Bill Ackman's hedge fund had a brutal month

bill ackman

(REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz)
Bill Ackman, founder and CEO of the hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management.

Pershing Square Capital, the hedge fund run by activist investor Bill Ackman, got crushed in September.

Pershing Square Holdings, the fund's publicly traded vehicle, fell 12.5% during the month. It's down 12.6% for the first nine months of the year, according to a performance update.

Ackman's returns were largely dragged down by the fund's large stake in Valeant Pharmaceuticals.

The Canadian pharmaceutical company's stock crashed this week after all of the Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee sent a letter to the committee's chairman, Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), asking him to subpoena the pharmaceutical company for documents related to price increases of acquired drugs.

Shares of Valeant fell by more than 22% in September.

In mid-March, Ackman disclosed that his fund bought 19,473,933 Valeant shares, or an approximately 5.7% stake. Ackman is the third-largest shareholder.

Pershing Square was the best-performing hedge fund last year, returning 40.4%.

NOW WATCH: The CEO who raised the price of a life-saving pill by 5000% has totally caved

More From Business Insider

• A short-selling firm just kicked Valeant while it's down with a brutal note
  

• Bill Ackman's biggest stock holding is getting hammered
  

• Valeant got spanked