We recently compiled a list of the Bill Gates Stock Portfolio: Latest 2024 Update. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) stands against the other stocks in Bill Gates’ portfolio.
Bill Gates is one of the most consequential people in the modern-day world. His software company, known for selling the Windows operating system, is among the most valuable firms in the world courtesy of its $3.30 trillion market capitalization. This firm has made Gates one of the richest people in the world, with his net worth estimated to sit at $108 billion according to the latest estimates.
The software billionaire retired from his firm in 2014, but he hasn’t stopped making an impact post-retirement. Rather than fade quietly into the distance, Gates refocused his efforts on causes and initiatives he is passionate about. Climate change, human health, and technology remain his key interests, and Gates targets these areas directly through his family office and indirectly through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
While it’s the Foundation that’s often at the center of media attention when it comes to Gates’ investments, the billionaire also invests through his family office Cascade Investment, LLC and Gates Frontier, LLC. Starting from Cascade Investment, the firm has had a moderately busy 2024. It started the year by disclosing a sizable ownership stake (23.7% of common stock) in a mega car parts company with a presence in the US, Mexico, and Brazil. This stock is up 30% year-to-date in a car market that has slowed down accompanied by a weaker discretionary spending environment due to high interest rates and inflation.
Cascade Investment reported owning a 22% stock in this company on February 13th, and the disclosure came just in the nick of time. This was because just five days later, the firm reported its second fiscal quarter earnings. The results sent the stock soaring by 8.7% as the company benefited from higher car prices leading to greater demand for its products. The firm’s second-quarter revenue and earnings per share of $3.86 billion and $28.89 beat analyst estimates of $3.84 billion and $26.28. By July end, Cascade’s stake grew to 24.9% and since then, the car parts manufacturer’s stock has gained 5.6%.
Bill Gates’ second investment disclosure through Cascade came in October when the firm declared that it owned a 7.1% stake in a diversified firm that sells electricity and plastic products such as pipe and also provides contract manufacturing services. The stock is down 7.4% year-to-date, but since Gates’ filing, it has gained 1.8%. It is also one of Gates’ oldest investments, with the billionaire having held a stake in it as early as 2000. It is also one of his most controversial plays since the firm generates electricity through conventional and polluting energy sources.
While Gates continues to hold stakes in the utility company and the car parts provider, Cascade Investments has also been busy selling one stock. All of its sales started at the end of October and have continued since then. The firm is selling a specialty chemicals company that caters to water treatment and other associated needs of waste treatment, semiconductor fabrication, pharmaceutical, and other industries. The shares had gained 2.74% year-to-date before Gates’ first sale, and since then, they have lost 0.90%. Interestingly, this stock also ranked 16th on our list of Wells Fargo’s Best Growth Stocks: 28 Stocks With The Highest Consensus EPS Growth Estimates. Since it’s an industrial stock, its fortune depends on broader US economic activity which also made it unsurprising that the shares
These three stocks are ones that have seen activity from Gates’ firm Cascade Investment. However, they are not the only ones that the billionaire has tinkered with this year. Gates’ other investment firm, Gates Frontier, also disclosed perhaps the most interesting stock of this introduction in February. This stock operates in one of the hottest industries right now. The shares are up 32% year-to-date, and the firm claims that its robotics technology “uses proprietary human-like surgical robots to virtually transport surgeons inside the patient to perform minimally invasive surgery.” The firm’s V1.0 surgical robot is currently planned to be submitted to the FDA for approval by mid-2026. Since the firm does not sell any products, it does not generate any revenue either. Consequently, it is a very risky play and Gates has likely invested in the to fund a new technology that might also end up making him money.
Our Methodology
To make our list of the latest stocks in Bill Gates’ portfolio, we scanned through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s SEC filings for the third quarter and picked out the top ten stocks with the highest investment stakes.
For these stocks, we also mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
A combine harvesting crops, showing the capabilities of the company’s agriculture equipment.
Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Investment Stake: $1.48 billion
Number of Hedge Fund Investors In Q3 2024: 41
Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) is one of the biggest industrial machinery companies in America. Since the firm derives a sizable chunk of its revenue from farming and agricultural machinery, its share price performance has been less than stellar in 2024. This is because lower farm prices have created supply disruptions in the market. The supply disruptions have translated into weak share price movements, as Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)’s shares were up by a hairline 1% by November 20th. However, the narrative shifted afterward when the firm’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings per share of $4.55 beat analyst estimates of $3.87 by a wide margin. Since then, Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)’s shares have gained 9.7% even though the firm’s fiscal 2025 midpoint profit guidance of $5.25 billion missed estimates of $5.93 billion. Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)’s management shared during the call that it expects machinery demand to remain muted. Therefore, a recovery in crop prices and incentives for farmers to start buying machines again should drive the hypothesis moving forward.
Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)’s management shared how it managed a tough year during the Q4 2024 earnings call. Here is what they said:
“2024 was characterized by our resiliency in the face of significant challenges. The pullback we experienced in global markets this year provided our organization with an opportunity to showcase the structural improvements we’ve made since announcing the smart industrial operating model in 2020. Starting with our financial scorecard, we continued to demonstrate better performance across the cycle. Notably, our margins in 2024 exceeded 18%, reflecting nearly 700 bps of improvement from 2020, which was the last time we were at this point in the cycle. This margin expansion has enabled us to invest record levels back into the business this year. More important than the numbers, I couldn’t be prouder of the resilience demonstrated by our John Deere employee team this year.
The velocity at which markets slowed tested our discipline and our agility. However, in the face of these difficulties, we emerged more focused than ever on our mission to help our customers do more with less. Our dedicated teams across factories, engineering centers, dealerships, branches, offices, and in the field showed remarkable fortitude as we made proactive decisions based on hard-learned lessons from the past. We maintain our focus on the customer, ensuring we not only retain but also actively seek out the best talent with the skills and experience necessary to help us solve the significant challenges facing our customers.”
Overall DE ranks 6th on our list of the stocks in Bill Gates’ portfolio. While we acknowledge the potential of DE as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than DE but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.