Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management is off to its strongest start to a year on record, reporting a roughly 25 per cent return on its investments so far in 2019.

That represents a turnaround for Ackman’s activist fund in the early part of the year, after a 10.8 per cent loss on its investments in December and a 0.7 per cent decline for all of 2018. Pershing Square returned 24.7 per cent on its investments this year through Feb. 12, according to a statement Wednesday. Last year, its annual returns were down 9.4 per cent through Feb. 13.

Ackman’s publicly traded Pershing Square Holdings Ltd., which will hold an investor day in London on Wednesday, announced it was implementing a quarterly dividend of 10 cents a share. The payout, which currently represents a 2.5 per cent yield, is intended to expand the company’s investor base by attracting dividend-seeking shareholders, the company said.

Pershing Square has positions in United Technologies Corp. (UTX.N), Starbucks Corp. (SBUX.O) and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (CMG.N), among other investments.