Bill Gates Portfolio: 5 Stocks to Buy and Hold for Over 5 Years

4. FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 64    

FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) provides transportation, e-commerce, and business services. According to the latest 13F data, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust owned more than 1.4 million shares in the firm at the end of December 2021 worth $386 million, representing 1.68% of the portfolio. The fund kept its stake in the firm unchanged in the fourth quarter compared to third quarter filings.

FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) has featured in the Gates portfolio since the third quarter of 2012. The fund first purchased a stake in the firm consisting of more than 3 million shares at an average price of $88.88 per share. This holding remained constant till early 2021 when the fund started dumping the shares. It reduced its stake in the firm by more than half in the first quarter of 2021. 

At the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, 64 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $2.4 billion in FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX), compared to 49 in the previous quarter worth $1.6 billion.

In its Q3 2021 investor letter, Artisan Partners, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“Our weakest Q3 performers included FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX). Shares of FedEx, a global shipping and logistics firm, were held back by disappointing business results as labor cost headwinds and air network disruptions overshadowed solid top-line trends. We think the company should be able to overcome these near-term issues. Importantly, FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) has strong pricing power as it operates in a consolidated global shipping industry. In September, the company announced it would increase its shipping rates by an average of 5.9% across most of its services, which is the first time in several years that its annual increase would exceed 5.0%. The industry’s renewed pricing discipline is a welcome change, reflecting a broader commitment to earn better returns on invested capital. FedEx is also closer to fully integrating TNT, a European-focused parcel company it acquired in 2016. The market is beginning to incorporate a higher probability FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) will fully integrate TNT, which will provide a significant boost to profits. The stock now trades at a near-trough multiple of less than 12X 2022 earnings, so we added to our position on weakness.”