By World Economic Forum (Flickr) CC-BY-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Gates Foundation Trust sold 65% of its Microsoft (MSFT) stake in Q3, reducing the position from $13.9B to $4.76B.
Microsoft dropped to the fourth-largest holding in the Gates Foundation Trust portfolio behind Berkshire Hathaway at $10.9B.
The sale appears driven by portfolio rebalancing and liquidity needs as the foundation plans to increase annual grants to $9B by 2026.
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Microsoft co-founder (NASDAQ:MSFT) Bill Gates once held the vast majority of his personal wealth in the company’s shares. Over decades, he gradually reduced his direct ownership through sales and massive donations to philanthropy.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust — now called the Gates Foundation Trust after his ex-wife resigned from the organization — long maintained Microsoft as its largest holding, a legacy of Gates’ ongoing stock gifts. One year ago, the holdings were valued at nearly $14 billion and represented one-third of the total.
Yet in its third quarter 13F-HR filing, the Trust revealed it sold approximately 17 million shares, slashing its Microsoft position by nearly 65%. The stock, previously valued at around $13.9 billion, dropped to roughly $4.76 billion. Microsoft now ranks only fourth in the portfolio, trailing Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-A)(NYSE:BRK-B) at $10.9 billion, Waste Management (NYSE:WM), and Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI).
But if the company’s founder’s foundation is dumping stock on this scale, even though Gates stepped away from operations years ago, does that signal it’s time for you to sell too?
Microsoft has evolved far beyond its roots as a personal computer software giant. Under CEO Satya Nadella, the company pivoted aggressively into cloud computing with Azure and positioned itself as a leader in artificial intelligence (AI) through its…
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