The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust’s Top Stocks

Canadian National Railway (USA) (NYSE:CNI)

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust made no change to its stake in Canadian National Railway (USA) (NYSE:CNI), and moved into the fourth quarter with 17.13 million shares of the company which have a market value of $1.12 billion. The stock is up over 22% year-to-date. In the third quarter, Canadian National reported Q3 EPS of CDN$1.25 ($0.93), versus CDN$1.26 reported last year, while revenue came in at CDN$3.01 billion, compared to last year’s CDN$3.22 billion. Daniel Bubis’ Tetrem Capital Management is a notable shareholder of Canadian National Railway with 1.28 million shares of the company, as of the end of the third quarter.

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT)

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust owns 11.26 million shares of Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT), as of the end of the third quarter. The total worth of this position is $999.63 million. The stock is up over 45% year to date. Investors are flocking into the Illinois-based construction equipment company after the election of Donald Trump, as he has promised to increase spending on infrastructure. In the third quarter, Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) reported EPS of $0.85 on $9.16 billion revenue, while the Street had projected EPS of $0.77 and $9.84 billion revenue. A total of 32 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT), as of the quarter ended on September 30.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT)

At the end of September, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation reported ownership of $836.81 million stake in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) with 11.60 million shares of the company. The Arkansas-based retail giant earned $0.98 a share in the third quarter, better than the estimates of $0.96. Comparable sales grew by 1.2%, driven by a traffic increase of 0.7%. For full fiscal 2017, Walmart expects EPS of $4.20-$4.35, versus the consensus of $4.34. Legendary investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has a stake of 12.97 million shares in Walmart, as of the end of the third quarter.

Disclosure: None