While Gates continues to own shares in the utility and auto parts provider, Cascade Investments was also busy selling a stock. The entire sale began at the end of October and has continued since then. The company is selling a specialty chemicals business that handles water treatment and other related needs in waste treatment, semiconductor manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and other industries. Prior to Gates’ initial sale, shares had gained 2.74% year-to-date and had lost 0.90% since then. Interestingly, this stock also ranked 16 on our list of Wells Fargo’s best growth stocks: 28 stocks with the highest consensus EPS growth estimates. Since it is an industrial stock, its fortunes depend on broader U.S. economic activity, which also made it no surprise that the stock

These three stocks were activated by Gates’ company Cascade Investment. However, they aren’t the only ones the billionaire has been tinkering with this year. Gates’ other investment firm, Gates Frontier, also released perhaps the most interesting stock of this introduction in February. This stock is in one of the hottest industries right now. Shares are up 32% year-to-date, and the company claims its robotics technology “uses proprietary, human-like surgical robots to virtually transport surgeons into patients to perform minimally invasive surgeries.“The company’s V1.0 surgical robot is currently scheduled to be submitted to the FDA for approval by mid-2026. Since the company does not sell any products, it does not generate any income. As a result, it is a very risky venture. Gates probably invested in it to finance a new technology that could ultimately make him money.

Our methodology

To create our list of the newest stocks in Bill Gates’ portfolio, we went through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s third-quarter SEC filings and picked out the ten stocks with the highest investment stakes.

For these stocks, we have also mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why do we care about the stocks hedge funds invest in? The reason is simple: Our research shows that we can outperform the market by mimicking the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks each quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, outperforming its benchmark by 150 percentage points (Further details can be found here).

A technician in a protective suit at a water treatment plant.

Investment share of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: 1.3 billion US dollars

Number of hedge fund investors in Q3 2024: 47

Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) is the specialty water treatment chemicals company we mentioned in our introduction. While Gates’ family office sold shares this year, the foundation has not sold shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) in 2024. The decision is real as stocks are up 25% year-to-date despite a subdued economy, activity that does not bode well for industrial companies. However, with overall economic activity subdued for more than a year due to two decades of high interest rates, Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) stands to benefit from pent-up demand. The potential recovery in demand was evident in the company’s third-quarter earnings, where global industrial sales rose $1.99 billion, or 2.6% annually. The growth came despite the fact that while the U.S. economy was able to stave off a sharp downturn, other countries were not so lucky. Another key factor that will drive Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)’s future performance is customer inventory levels. They will provide insights into whether customers are experiencing higher activity to begin building inventory for an expected increase in activity.

Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) management shared its future growth plans during its third quarter 2024 earnings call. Here’s what they said:

“Now I want to turn our attention from the third quarter to our teams’ areas of focus to drive long-term growth and margin expansion. Our growth engines in the areas of clean tech, high tech and biotech show strength and dynamism, even if they are each in different stages of development.

Total ECL takes 7th place on our list of stocks in Bill Gates’ portfolio. While we recognize ECL’s potential as an investment, we believe AI stocks have more promise for delivering higher returns, and within a shorter time frame. If you’re looking for an AI stock that has more promise than ECL but trades at less than 5 times earnings, check out our report on it cheapest AI stock.

READ MORE: The 8 Best Wide Moat Stocks to Buy Now And The 30 most important AI stocks according to BlackRock.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published on Insider Monkey.