Bill Gates: 15 Costco Wholesale transactions (Bill & Melinda Gates (2024)

FAQs

How much of Costco does Bill Gates own? ›

Bill Gates Costco Wholesale Corp

The first Costco Wholesale trade was made in Q3 2002. Since then Bill Gates bought shares ten more times and sold shares on four occasions. The investor sold all their shares in Q4 2012 and doesn't own any shares in Costco Wholesale anymore.

Bullish on this entire logistics and supply chain market, regardless of the competitive differences, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation now owns through Cascade Investment 1.53 million shares of FedEx Corp. This is worth $392 million. Gates has the 10th largest holding at FedEx, in contrast to the 15th at UPS.

The Gates Foundation Trust currently owns 755,089 shares of UPS, valued at around $118.7 million. While UPS stock only accounts for 0.28% of the trust's portfolio, Bill Gates has held the stock since 2014. That's a powerful vote of confidence from one of the world's foremost investors.

Largest shareholders include Vanguard Group Inc, BlackRock Inc., State Street Corp, VTSMX - Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares, VFINX - Vanguard 500 Index Fund Investor Shares, Fmr Llc, Morgan Stanley, Geode Capital Management, Llc, Invesco Qqq Trust, Series 1, and Bank Of America Corp /de/ .

Costco is mainly owned by institutional investors, who own over 70% of shares. The largest shareholders in December 2023 were: The Vanguard Group (9.10%) BlackRock (6.90%)

Microsoft Corp (MSFT. O) co-founder Bill Gates' investment vehicle Cascade Investment LLC has become the largest shareholder in farm machinery maker Deere & Co (DE. N), with a 5% stake, according to a regulatory filing.

Bill Gates added to his holdings in McDonald's Corporation by 10.13%. His purchase prices were between $93.27 and $98.92, with an estimated average price of $96.07. The impact to his portfolio due to this purchase was 0.49%. His holdings were 10,872,500 shares as of 12/31/2013.

Bill Gates acquired 54.8 Million Canadian National Railway shares worth $6.66 Billion. That's 15.00% of their entire equity portfolio (4th largest holding). The investor owns 8.35% of the outstanding Canadian National Railway stock. The first Canadian National Railway trade was made in Q3 2002.

Editor's Choice. The trust didn't own much of ride-hailing giant Uber, just 26,767 shares, but sold them all in the fourth quarter. Uber stock had a strong 2020, surging 71.5%.

Does Bill Gates own part of Amazon? ›

According to reports, Bill Gates has invested a total of $100 million in Amazon. This investment was made in 1995, when Amazon was still a relatively new company.

The trust's most recent 13F filing made with the SEC revealed its top investments, which are somewhat unique in that they're not your typical mega-cap tech companies. Instead, the trust owns concentrated stock positions in less heard of companies, like Coca-Cola FEMSA, which is a Mexican bottler of popular soft drinks.

As of September 2021, Gates' net worth is estimated to be around $125 billion. If his fortune were converted to gold, he would have approximately 2,500 metric tons of the metal. That's equivalent to about two Olympic-sized swimming pools filled with gold.

Gates' unsurprising top AI stock

You probably won't be surprised in the least by Gates' top AI stock. Almost 34% of the Gates Foundation Trust's portfolio is invested in Microsoft (MSFT 0.73%). The billionaire co-founded the technology company and served as its CEO for 25 years.

According to Forbes, as of 2021, Bill Gates has a net worth of $130.5 billion. Out of this amount, it is estimated that only about 3% to 4% is in liquid assets, meaning cash or assets that can easily be converted to cash.

Seven years later, Jim Sinegal channeled his expertise into co-founding Costco Wholesale with Jeff Brotman, and together they opened the first warehouse in Seattle, Washington in 1983.

Costco Wholesale

But there's one dominant retailer that isn't on the list. It might come as a surprise that legendary investor Warren Buffett doesn't own Costco Wholesale (COST 0.02%) shares. This is even more shocking when you realize his right-hand man, Charlie Munger, is a large shareholder.

Some of the highest wages a worker can make at Costco are in the job titles Registered Pharmacist ($136,000), and title Full Stack Software Engineer ($133,750) which are the highest paying jobs at Costco.

Bill Gates cofounded Microsoft Corporation, the world's largest personal-computer software company.