Republic Services, Inc. (RSG): The Stake of Bill Gates’ Cascade Investment Tops 24% of the Company

Bill Gates‘ investment arm keeps loading up on Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE:RSG)‘s stock. In a recent filing with the SEC, Cascade Investment revealed acquiring another 31,600 shares of the company, raising its stake to around 100.5 million shares. The stake amasses over 24% of the $14 billion company. In the last increase, Cascade Investment acquired the securities in open market transactions at prices varied between $39.47 and $39.52 per share.

Cascade Investments

Cascade have been acquiring shares of Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE:RSG) for quite some time. Earlier in June the fund owned around 90 million shares, as we reported in an article. Another firm associated with Mr. Gates, which is Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, where the cofounder of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) acts as a trustee, owns around 1.35 million shares of Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE:RSG). Mario Gabelli‘s GAMCO Investors also revealed a stake, which contains some 2.86 million shares of the company, in its latest 13F filing.

Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE:RSG) is engaged in the waste management industry, providing services in the domestic non-hazardous solid waste segment. The company has around 300 collection operations in the US and Puerto Rico. The company has reported a significant improvement in its earnings for the second quarter, declaring a net income of $179 million, or $0.5 per share, up from $56.3 million, or $0.15 per share for the same period of last year.

Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE:RSG)’s stock gained around 18% since the beginning of the year, and sports a P/E of approximately 19.70, which is significantly below the Waste Management industry average of 80.00.

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