CORRECTED-UPDATE 1-Pershing Square ups McDonalds, cuts Target

BOSTON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Hedge fund investor William Ackman, known for often pressing companies for change, more than tripled his holdings in fast food restaurant McDonald's but cut his stake in retailer Target in the third quarter. Pershing Square Capital Management, Ackman's New York-based hedge fund, boosted its stake in McDonald's to 8.2 million shares at the end of September from 2.4 million at the end of the second quarter. Ackman, who takes stakes in only a few stocks at a time and often builds them quickly, initiated a bet on Corrections Corporation of America, which he built on during October, according to regulatory filings. He also trimmed his holding in payroll servicing company Automatic Data Processing Inc, which he had built during the second quarter. But perhaps most interestingly, Ackman, who lost a bitter proxy battle with Target Corp this year, cut his stake in the retailer. At the end of the third quarter he owned 26 million shares in the company, down from the 33 million he owned in early August after he converted options in the company into common stock, according to a regulatory filing. A regulatory filing made on Aug. 11 gave more current information than the data on second quarter holdings. At that time, analysts said Ackman was signaling his long term interest in Target by converting the options into shares. He is still a big stakeholder in the retailer. During the third quarter, Ackman liquidated positions in Saks Inc, Wendy's Arby's Group and Visa. (Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Bernard Orr and Steve Orlofsky) Keywords: PERSHINGSQUARE/ ([e-mail]; [phone]; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.

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