Have you ever wondered where the Gates Foundation invests its money? In the fourth quarter of 2024, the foundation has impressive holdings in its portfolio.

The foundation manages assets of around 42.02 billion US dollars and is one of the largest private foundations in the world. The main stocks include Berkshire Hathaway , Canadian National Railway and Microsoft .

Here is an overview of some of the largest holdings:

- Microsoft: USD 11.99 billion (28.54%) $MSFT (-1.57%)

- Berkshire Hathaway: USD 8.91 billion (21.20%) $BRK.A (+0.95%)
$BRK.B (-0.13%)

- Waste Management: USD 6.5 billion (15.48%) $WM (-0.95%)

- Canadian National Railway: USD 5.57 billion (13.24%) $CNR (+0.55%)

- Caterpillar: USD 2.67 billion (6.35%) $CAT (-2.26%)

These investments show that the Gates Foundation invests in both traditional and future-oriented companies.

What do you think of the Gates Foundation's investment decisions? Do you think they are backing the right horses? 📈

Focused on growth: savings plan execution in the dividend growth portfolio

Five savings plans of € 25 each were executed today as part of my dividend growth portfolio.

• $BAC (-0.56%)
• 
  $CNR (+0.55%)
• 
  $KO (+2.3%)
• 
  $MA (-0.3%)
• 
  $MSFT (-1.57%)

This selection represents a mix of proven dividend payers and growth companies operating in different sectors. With a clear focus on long-term capital appreciation and dividend growth, each savings plan forms a building block for stable, passive income and sustainable asset growth.

Which savings plans did you execute this month?

Feedback - Dividend growth portfolio

Hello everyone, I have recently built up a dividend growth portfolio.

It should consist of 5 shares and these should have a low dividend yield, whereby the dividend growth should be all the higher.

I have decided on the following 5 stocks, but I am prepared to change them.

• $BAC (-0.56%)
• 
  $CNR (+0.55%)
• 
  $KO (+2.3%)
• 
  $MA (-0.3%)
• 
  $MSFT (-1.57%)

Coca Cola probably doesn't seem to be the right candidate for the portfolio or am I wrong here?

What do you think of the portfolio? Weighting? Sectors, countries?

Yesterday's additional purchase. Target size in the portfolio thus reached. 😊

I will soon have some money available to invest again, which I would like to use for additional purchases.

First and foremost, I want to further expand my ETF positions.

I would particularly like to buy more of my individual stocks at the moment:

• Canadian National Railway $CNR (+0.55%)
• 
  Nestlé $NESN (+4.08%)
• 
  PepsiCo $PEP (+3.26%)
• 
  Daikin Industries $6367 (+0.12%)
• 
  Walmart de Mexico $WALMEX* (-0.37%)

These are all long-term positions in my portfolio, which I think are currently valued quite favorably.

What do you think of these 5 companies?

I am grateful for any input!

Your Burner

Depot update:

I have again exchanged a few of my 45 long-term individual positions for stocks that I simply feel more comfortable with for the next few years.

Once again, a brief summary of my strategy:

1) I want to bring the two large ETF positions to 25% weighting each, as the core of the portfolio.

2) I would like to hold and save the 45 individual positions for the long term, as I consider them to be good buy & hold investments that have the potential to beat the market in the long term.

3) I would like to hold cryptos at a weighting of around 5%. If the weighting exceeds 10%, I halve it again and invest the money freed up in equities.

Considerations/plans:

- Additional purchases are planned for positions that are not yet as large for me, for example. $NOC (+2.66%) I would like each position to be at least €600

• Also bid $V (-0.16%)
  $CNR (+0.55%) and $WALMEX* (-0.37%) are currently offering me good opportunities for additional purchases
• I am currently considering "only" weighting the two ETFs with 20% each and also adding the $CSNDX (-1.63%) with a 10% weighting... But I don't think I will do that, the heavyweights from the Nasdaq 100 are already well weighted in my portfolio anyway

What do you think about the portfolio, what would you change?

PS: I'm not actively looking to collect a lot of dividends and I'm aware of the high number of individual stocks, so I can live with that.

Cordially - Welcome to the depot!

Sometimes good investment opportunities are right in front of your own eyes. When I was at a production site the other day and caught sight of the countless tank cars, I got to thinking about who actually does the better business on the rails. Who makes more money on a freight train - the locomotive or the railcars? So I was more concerned with this issue, since there is still no way to invest in Canadian Pacific after the merger. I already thought about this in the following article: https://getqu.in/tWYkun/

GATX - interesting alternative to traditional logistics companies on the stock exchange.

What makes $GATX (-0.64%)?

GATX is a US-based lessor/leasing provider of railcars in North America, Europe and India. This makes them one of the largest rail fleet owners in the world.

But what is the business behind it?

GATX leases the wagons directly to manufacturing companies. During the term of the contract, they are the physical property of the manufacturing companies, which have to bear the corresponding costs for maintenance and repair. Most people should be familiar with this from conventional car leasing.

They are therefore independent of the respective operating costs and operating resources that a transport company has to take into account and which, of course, cannot be neglected in view of rising energy prices, as well as independent of freight rates and order backlog.

Therefore a good alternative to the established transport companies, like $UNP (-0.01%) , $CSX (-0.16%) , $NSC (+0%) or $CNR (+0.55%) as investments.

In addition, they offer their service in maintenance. The license to maintain their wagons is transferred to external service providers and marketed. Customers are thus forced to visit contract workshops in order to be able to guarantee compliance with the leasing contracts.

The risks of the business:

However, GATX thus bears the worry of the freely available fleet and has to bear corresponding costs for each wagon that has not been leased. In addition, they are of course dependent on the freight rates of their customers in order to be able to achieve maximum capacity utilization when leasing.

Likewise, they bear the risk of the procurement costs for the construction of the respective product in the calculation.

The portfolio:

GATX has chemically resistant tank cars of various volumes and designs for liquids. This includes the respective regional standards. In addition, transport wagons for bulk goods, intermodal, general cargo and compressed gas containers.

Competition?

Hardly to be found on the stock exchange. The direct competitors are Ermewa and VTG.

Ermewa is now part of DWS. $DWS (+0.52%) . At the same time, VTG became the property of the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund at the end of 2022. The Swiss competitor Wascosa is still present, but rather insignificant in these proportions.

The takeovers of major competitors actually show the lucrativeness of the business, so other investors are left out of the equation. The business model is a flourishing cash cow with excellent future prospects thanks to higher freight rates by rail.

All in all, for me a nice American second-tier stock with growth prospects. At the moment, however, I am waiting with an investment until the economy improves again for the industrial stocks on the active continents. As a bonus, there is always a nice little dividend.