Bill Gates Trims Berkshire Stake, Adds 2 New Positions - One Is A 'Garbage' Stock

Bill Gates has been known for buying up farmland as well as investing in disruptive companies to better combat climate change such as solid-state battery producer QuantumScape (NYSE: QS).

Over the course of the third quarter, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust increased its portfolio from 20 to 21 stocks, taking it to over $33.9 billion in value.

During the second quarter, the value of the portfolio was over $17.7 billion in value, revealing Gates has increased the fund's stake in a number of stocks.

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What Was Purchased?

Over the course of the third quarter, Gates made two new purchases, one of which was Waste Connections (NYSE: WCN), the third-largest integrated provider of traditional solid waste and recycling services in North America.

Gates purchased over 2.1 million shares in Waste Connections, which is not surprising as he has been a big proponent of Waste Management (NYSE: WM).

The other being Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ: KHC), as Gates purchased over 2.6 million shares of the stock during the third quarter.

What Was Sold?

Out of all of Gate’s positions, he sold Sanderson Farms Inc. (NASDAQ: SAFM), accounting for 524,236 shares.

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What Did Gates Shuffle Around?

Gates' largest trades were made amongst his top five holdings, reducing shares in his previous largest holding Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B) by exactly 5 million shares, now making it his second-largest holding, totaling 23% of the portfolio.

Gates increased the portfolio’s stake in Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) by over 38.3 million shares (totaling 27% of portfolio), Canadian National Railway (NYSE: CNI) by over 44.8 million shares (totaling 17%), Waste Management (NYSE: WM) by over 16.6 million shares (totaling 17%), and Deere (NYSE: DE) by over 3 million shares (totaling 3.8%).

Gates also increased his stake in FedEx (NYSE: FDX) by at least 1 million shares and Coupang (NYSE: CPNG) by over 3.5 million shares, and incrementally increased his stake in Ecolab (NYSE: ECL).

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