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Strategies & Market Trends : Technical analysis for shorts & longs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Johnny Canuck who wrote (44595)	2/26/2008 4:40:28 PM
From: Johnny Canuck	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70769

Indie Research Spying the Gates Foundation: Diversified Holdings Stay Ahead of Market Weakness Monday February 25, 9:56 am ET By the tickerspy.com Staff Bill Gates, founder of software giant Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT - News), may not play a central role at the company any more, but the world still takes notice when he's in the news. Most recently, Gates commented on Microsoft's high-profile bid for Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO - News), indicating that he believed the offer of $31 per share to be "generous." Yahoo continues to resist Microsoft's advances. ADVERTISEMENT Of course, in recent years, Gates has shifted his focus away from the software firm he founded to concentrate more on charitable endeavors. His Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest transparently operated charitable foundation in the world. It aims, among other things, to combat poverty and a number of global health issues, including the HIV and malaria epidemics, and it counts Gates' friend and fellow billionaire Warren Buffett among its trustees. Buffett made headlines in 2006 when he pledged $30 billion in Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A - News, BRK-B - News) stock to the Gates' charitable efforts. The Gates Foundation's considerable endowment is managed by Bill Gates Investments, which handles Gates' personal fortune. According to a Los Angeles Times article, Bill and Melinda Gates require the endowment's managers to keep a "highly diversified portfolio, but make no specific directives." Looking at the Gates Foundation's holdings at the end of Q4, the endowment's top holding is, predictably, 975,000 shares of B class Berkshire Hathaway stock. Beyond that, the foundation has been increasing its investment in one of Buffett's favorite sectors, railroads, by upping its position in Canadian National Railway (NYSE: CNI - News). The Gates Foundation was also seen significantly upping its stakes in big-name brands McDonald's (NYSE: MCD - News) and Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT - News), with a smaller increase in its position in Costco Wholesale (Nasdaq: COST - News). The foundation made moves elsewhere during Q4, as well, adding shares in Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT - News), energy giant Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM - News), and Waste Management (NYSE: WMI - News). Looking at tickerspy.com's graph charting the performance of the Gates Foundation's end-of-Q4 holdings so far this quarter, one can see that the holdings have managed to stay ahead of the market, though not quite above breakeven. If you want to see how your performance stacks up to the Gates Foundation's or just see some of the other stocks it's invested in, visit tickerspy.com to see the Foundation's top holdings and a chart of their combined performance. Pro portfolio performance is based on institutions' top-15 holdings as disclosed in quarter-end filings with the SEC. Pro performance does not take into account additional holdings beyond the top 15 nor does it include positions that are not required to be disclosed by the SEC. As such, Pro portfolio performance should be considered an approximation and not a precise record of how an institution has performed over time. Tap Into the Market Intelligence of Investment Pros & Individual Investors at tickerspy.com: Newly launched by Indie Research, tickerspy.com is a FREE financial website that lets you TRACK multiple stock portfolios, FIND and SHARE the latest news about the companies you follow, and SPY on the portfolios of nearly 2,000 Wall Street institutions and hedge funds and see graphs of their performance. Best of all, find out how YOU stack up against investing legends like Warren Buffett. Try tickerspy.com today!