Apart from being the co-founder of tech titan Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and a renowned philanthropist, Bill Gates is also quite an active investor. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust tends to invest in stocks that have good long-term prospects — at present, it maintains stakes in 23 businesses.
The Foundation’s portfolio has undergone little change over the course of the last two years — it is still highly concentrated, with Microsoft, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A), and Waste Management (NYSE: WM) accounting for 66% of holdings.
Every once in a while, the billionaire does tweak his positions — and when he does, the market tends to react rapidly to the changes.
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One of Gates’ longstanding investments is water-treatment business Ecolab (NYSE: ECL). Since 2010, he has continually increased his stake in the company — however, from October 31 to November 4, he sold off roughly $200 million in ECL stock.
Now, an SEC Form 4 filing made public on November 22 has revealed that the tech mogul has dumped an additional $67 million worth of ECL shares — leading to concerns about the venture’s long-term prospects.
Bill Gates sells 275,942 Ecolab shares
From November 20 to November 22, Gates made 9 transactions — put together, they encompass the sale of 275,942 units of Ecolab stock. The trades were made at prices ranging from $240.65 to $246.85.
In total, the billionaire walked away from the sale with roughly $67,049,096 — supplementing his previous $200 million Ecolab sale. At press time, ECL stock was trading at $245.30, with year-to-date (YTD) returns of 23.76%.
That is quite a decent performance, but the sale was not unfounded — on October 29, the company held its Q3 2024 earnings call, which was largely seen as underwhelming. Although Ecolab did raise its annual guidance, both earnings per share (EPS) and revenues came in slightly below expectations. Since the earnings report, ECL shares are down 4.35%.
Is Gates’ sale a cause for concern for ECL stock?
The Microsoft co-founder’s sale also wasn’t made in accordance with a 10b5-1 plan — meaning it wasn’t scheduled in advance. However, readers should note that this does not necessarily constitute a rock-solid bearish signal.
For one, Gates could simply be taking profits, as ECL stock has performed quite well throughout 2024. Elsewise, he could simply be redirecting his attention toward assets he deems as more lucrative.
Gates billionaire continues to hold 29,178,741 ECL shares worth roughly $7,157,545,167 at the time of writing. That’s quite a significant stake — while Gates couldn’t divest from his holdings all at once even if he wanted to due to liquidity issues, it’s still important to note that, looking at the bigger picture, the sale represented just a small reduction in stake.
Readers should still keep an eye out for insider activity — when coupled with the figures that will be released in the company’s next earnings call, it can provide a more material basis for evaluating the stock.
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