After Bill Gates Dumps Billions In Berkshire To Buy Microsoft, His Quiet Biotech Portfolio Has Made A New Trade

Bill Gates has two portfolios he makes trades from: the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust. For the purpose of this article, Benzinga will delve into the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which is heavily concentrated in biotechnology and health care-related stocks.

Unlike the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, this fund has only 10 positions with four of them making up more than two-thirds of the entire portfolio. Furthermore, investments in biotechnology stocks can be very risky if the product doesn't work as planned or if the market does not accept the product.

This may be why Gates is separating his more risky biotech investments from his more conservative portfolio (the trust) that includes names such as Microsoft Corporation and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Surprisingly, Gates trimmed his stake in Berkshire Hathaway and bought a lot of Microsoft shares to make it his top-owned position.

Also Read: Bill Gates Trims Berkshire Stake, Adds 2 New Positions - One Is A 'Garbage' Stock

What Was Bought?

Gates only bought one stock in this portfolio, purchasing more than 14.2 million shares of LumiraDx Ltd LMDX making it his fourth most-owned position, totaling 12% of the portfolio.

LumiraDx manufactures and commercializes a diagnostic platform that supports a broad menu of tests with lab-comparable performance at point of care.

What Was Traded?

Gates trimmed the stake in Atreca Inc BCEL by more than 10,000 shares during the third quarter. Atreca is a biopharmaceutical company utilizing its differentiated platform to discover and develop novel antibody-based immunotherapeutics to treat a range of solid tumor types.

What Are The Top Three Positions?

Gates' three most concentrated positions all happen to be biotechnology companies that have a focus on treating and preventing infectious diseases.

Gates purchased more than 880,000 shares of Vir Biotechnology Inc VIR during the first quarter of 2022 and has not bought more since. The stake in Vir Biotechnology is currently at 24%.

Gates first opened a position in Immunocore Holdings PLC - ADR IMCR during the first quarter of 2021 with more than 570,000 shares and has remained unchanged ever since. The stake in Immunocore Holdings is now worth 21% of the total portfolio.

Gates sold at least 890,000 shares of ​​BioNTech SE - ADR BNTX in the third quarter of 2021, which used to be the top position in the second quarter of 2021, then accounting for 36% of the fund. Now, BioNTech is Gates' third most-owned position accounting for 16% of the portfolio.

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