Bill Gates Portfolio: 7 Best Stocks to Buy in 2022

What stocks does Bill Gates invest in? Here’s a look at his portfolio.

Bill Gates is the co-founder and former CEO of software giant Microsoft Corp. (ticker: MSFT), which has grown to become a $2.1 trillion technology behemoth. Gates’ success at Microsoft propelled him to become the world’s wealthiest person for several years throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s. Gates stepped down as CEO of Microsoft in 2000 and has since focused largely on philanthropy via the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Today, Gates is worth more than $110 billion after having donated nearly $57 billion to the Gates Foundation. Here are seven of Gates’ largest stock investments, based on recent filings from Gates, his Cascade Investment private investment firm, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust.

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)

If you’re going to invest like Bill Gates, the most obvious place to start is by buying shares of the company that made Gates wealthy in the first place. Although Gates is not as hands-on at Microsoft as he once was, he is believed to still own about 1% of the company, a stake worth around $28 billion. Microsoft is also one of the Gates Foundation Trust’s top 10 holdings. The trust holds 944,620 shares of Microsoft worth about $242.6 million. For a $2 trillion company, Microsoft still reported impressive 12.3% revenue growth in the fiscal fourth quarter compared with the prior-year period.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.A, BRK.B)

Berkshire Hathaway is the holding company of fellow billionaire and Wall Street legend Warren Buffett. It is also by far the largest stock holding of the Gates Foundation Trust. The trust holds about 34.7 million shares of BRK.B stock worth about $9.5 billion, making the trust’s Berkshire stake more than three times the size of any of its other public stock holdings. Buffett has been making annual donations of Berkshire stock to the Gates Foundation since back in 2006, when he pledged to eventually donate 99% of his net worth and all of his Berkshire stock.

Waste Management Inc. (WM)

Waste Management provides waste management environmental services to residential, commercial, industrial and municipal customers. The Gates Foundation first invested in Waste Management way back in the third quarter of 2002, and the stock has generated a total return of roughly 1,000% since that time. Waste Management runs one of the largest recycling operations in the world, which is in line with the Gates Foundation’s environmental goals. In 2020, Waste Management recycled 13.5% of all the materials it handled, including 7.7 million tons of paper and 502,459 tons of plastic. The Gates Foundation holds 18.6 million shares of WM stock worth nearly $2.9 billion.

Canadian National Railway Co. (CNI)

Canadian National Railway is the fourth-largest North American railroad. According to a 13D filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in July, Gates, the Gates Foundation and Gates’ Cascade investment firm hold a combined 64,360,928 shares of CNI stock worth more than $8.2 billion at today’s prices. Those combined holdings also represent about a 9.3% ownership stake in Canadian National. Gates gifted 44.5 million of those shares of Canadian National to the Gates Foundation in July, leaving Gates himself with roughly a 1.4% ownership stake in the company. Gates had previously sold more than $1.6 billion of CNI stock earlier this year.

Deere & Co. (DE)

Deere is the world’s largest producer of farm equipment. Around the same time Gates gifted his Canadian National shares to the Gates Foundation, he also gifted more than 3 million shares of Deere to the foundation worth about $955 million. In a second July 13D filing with the SEC, Gates disclosed that he, Cascade and the Gates Foundation hold a combined 23,689,657 shares of Deere stock worth nearly $8.8 billion. Those shares represent a combined 7.8% ownership stake in Deere. DE stock has been a solid performer for Gates in 2022, gaining about 8% through Aug. 19 in a difficult market.

Republic Services Inc. (RSG)

Republic Services is another non-hazardous solid waste disposal services company that is a top Gates holding. In February 2022, a Cascade filing revealed Gates added another 362,747 shares to his Republic Services stake, bringing Cascade’s total holdings up to roughly 109.8 million shares worth more than $16 billion. That gives Cascade about a 35% ownership stake in Republic Services. RSG shares have performed relatively well so far in 2022, generating a total return of 5.7% through Aug. 19. In the second quarter, Republic reported 21.4% revenue growth and 12.3% net income growth compared with a year ago.

Ecolab Inc. (ECL)

Ecolab provides water, hygiene, and energy technologies and services for a wide range of end markets, including the food services and processing, hospitality and health care industries. Gates first disclosed a stake in Ecolab back in June 2011, and the stock has more than tripled since then as Gates has steadily increased his stake. Cascade has added hundreds of thousands of shares to its position in ECL throughout August, reporting a total investment of more than 31 million shares worth roughly $5.3 billion. The Gates Foundation also holds roughly 4.8 million shares of ECL stock worth more than $800 million.

7 best stocks to buy to follow Bill Gates’ lead:

— Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)

— Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.A, BRK.B)

— Waste Management Inc. (WM)

— Canadian National Railway Co. (CNI)

— Deere & Co. (DE)

— Republic Services Inc. (RSG)

— Ecolab Inc. (ECL)

More from U.S. News

Tesla Competitors: 7 Rival EV Stocks to Buy

9 Dividend Stocks to Buy and Hold Forever

10 Best Cybersecurity Stocks to Buy Now