Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Buys Signet, Procter & Gamble

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has filed its record of holdings at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012. The firm held 26 different stocks at the end of the quarter, and its entire portfolio was worth $16,788,721,000.

The firm’s largest holding, by a huge distance, was in B Class Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.B). The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, however, dropped 6.7% of its holding in the company in the fourth quarter of 2012. The foundation now holds 87,081,373 in Warren Buffett’s company. That holding makes up 46.53% of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s entire holdings.

Warren Buffett is the third trustee in the foundation after Bill & Melinda Gates and made an agreement with the foundation to donate 10 million shares to the foundation if certain goals were met. Buffett’s involvement, and his donations in the form of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.B) shares, explain the large stake the foundation held in the company.

The second biggest holding of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is in The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO). The foundation increased its holding in the firm by 45.33%. The foundation now holds 34,002,000 shares in the Coca-Cola and that holding makes up 7.34% of the firm’s equity holdings.

Coca-Cola FEMSA, S.A.B. de C.V. (ADR) (NYSE:KOF), Latin America’s biggest distributor of Coca Cola products, is the third largest holding of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Coca-Cola FEMSA, makes up 5.52% of the foundation’s holdings, and did not change during the fourth quarter.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation bought into four new stocks in the last three months of 2012, but did not shed any of its holdings. The only stock the company divested itself of was in Berkshire Hathaway. And the firm added to positions in just three other stocks.

The equities the firm added during the last three months of 2012 were Willis Group Holdings PLC (NYSE:WSH), Signet Jewelers Ltd. (NYSE:SIG), Autoliv Inc. (NYSE:ALV) and Orbotech Ltd. (NASDAQ:ORBK). The foundation holds 0.12%, 0.06%, 0.05%, and 0.04% in these companies respectively.

The firm added to positions in Coca-Cola FEMSA, S.A.B. de C.V. (ADR) (NYSE:KOF), as above, and The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG). The firm increased its position in the consumer goods firm by 1222.34% during the period. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation now holds 0.61% of its portfolio in The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG), with a total of 1,500,000 shares.