Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust Counts Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B), Canadian National Railway (USA) (CNI) Among Top Holdings

Canadian National Railway (USA) (NYSE:CNI) comes at number two in the equity portfolio of the foundation, which holds 17.13 million shares valued at $989.08 million as of June 30. The rail transportation company has a rail route of 20,000 miles spread across Canada and mid-America. Canadian National Railway is one of the most preferred stocks in the railroad industry, considering that it has increased its dividend for the last 19 years. Canadian National Railway (USA) (NYSE:CNI) announced a third quarter 2015 dividend of $0.24, which will be paid on September 30 to shareholders of record on September 9. The shares of the railway transportation company are down by 11.91% year-to-date, although there has been an improvement of 1.75% since its second quarter results were released on July 20. D. E. Shaw, founded by David E. Shaw, is the largest shareholder of Canadian National Railway (USA) (NYSE:CNI) in our portfolio, owning 1.87 million shares valued at $107.60 million.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s third largest investment is in Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT), consisting of 11.26 million shares with a market value of $955.15 million. The shares of the heavy-equipment maker are down by 14.87% year-to-date. A weaker Chinese economy and a slump in the oil industry has had a negative impact on Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT), with the weakness in crude oil and commodity prices affecting the sales coming out of its resource industries division. Caterpillar provides diesel and natural gas engines for the mining and exploration of crude oil. A strong US dollar has posed challenging for the company over the past several months as well. Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) reported stronger-than-expected second quarter results with earnings per share of $1.27 against market estimates of $1.25, although its reported revenue of $12.3 billion was short of analysts’ estimates of $12.6 billion. On a year-over-year basis, the revenue was down by 13.0% and the company issued a lower annual revenue guidance of $49.0 billion against previous guidance of $50.0 billion. Harris Associates is one of the top stockholders of Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) that we track, with 11.49 million shares valued at $974.78 million.

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