We recently published a list of Bill Gates’ 10 Stock Positions with Huge Upside Potential. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Veralto Corporation (NYSE:VLTO) stands against other top stocks in Bill Gates’ portfolio with huge upside potential.
Bill Gates became the youngest billionaire back in 1987 when he took Microsoft public, and he has been a billionaire since then. Gates has contributed a huge amount of his wealth to philanthropic activities and intends to donate 99.96% to charity when he dies. To oversee his philanthropic endeavours, Gates founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust. The trust oversees investment assets, with Bill and his wife, Melinda French, serving as trustees.
Read More: 10 Best Stocks to Buy According to Bill Gates
Michael Larson at Cascade Asset Management Company manages Gates’ wealth and investments. Larson also serves as the chief investment officer for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Cascade has been managing Bill Gates’ investments since 1994. Larson has helped Gates grow his wealth from under $10 billion to almost $130 billion.
Bill Gates’ Take on Tariffs?
Recently, Bill was asked about the tariffs during a CNBC interview celebrating the 50th Anniversary of his company, to which he replied that he doesn’t know what the economic effect will be, but so far it’s just on goods. “Eventually, will it be on services? Who knows?” he added. He said that politicians should be focusing more on AI, which they are not. He said that we will adjust, and AI is the biggest trend today.
Before the elections, Gates pointed out that tariffs will slow down the overall welfare, and the ripple effect of tariffs will impact innovation in the U.S.
Bruce Kasman, the chief economist at JP Morgan Chase, now expects the chance of a global recession to be around 60% compared to his previous estimate of 40%.
As of Q4 2024, the Gates Foundation reported managing $42.28 billion in the 13F securities. The tech and industrial goods sectors represent 29% and 26.3% of the portfolio, respectively. The finance sector accounted for nearly 21% of the fund’s portfolio.
Our Methodology
We searched through Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust’s Q4 2024 13F filings to identify the top stocks in Bill Gates’ portfolio. The stocks are ranked in ascending order of the analyst upside, as of April 22. We have also mentioned the number of hedge funds holding stakes in these stocks. Data for the number of hedge fund investors for each stock was taken from Insider Monkey’s database, updated as of Q4 2024.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds and billionaire investors pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
Copyright: kurga / 123RF Stock Photo
Veralto Corporation (NYSE:VLTO)
Analyst Upside: 17.27%
No. of Hedge Fund Holders: 43
Veralto Corporation (NYSE:VLTO) offers technological solutions to monitor and protect major resources worldwide. Its services include water analytics, water treatment, packaging, marking and coding, and colour solutions. The company operates through two segments including Water Quality (WQ) and Product Quality & Innovation (PQI).
Veralto Corporation (NYSE:VLTO) is set to acquire Austria-based company Aquafides for almost $20 million. Aquafides improves Trojan Technologies’ ability to serve European customers. The company will add to Veralto’s UV treatment portfolio and offer growth opportunities in this segment.
Veralto Corporation posted strong results in FY2024, with the full-year revenue in line with analyst estimates. The company’s revenue came in at $5.19 billion, up from $5.02 billion in 2023. The earnings per share exceeded analyst estimates by 1.3%, reported at $3.54 per share. One of the key drivers for the revenue was Veralto’s WQ segment, which contributed almost 60% of the total revenue. Nathan Jones from Stifel reiterates a Buy rating on VLTO shares, lowering the price target to $102 from $110. The analyst has revised following the concerns regarding a potential industrial recession amid the tariffs. However, Jones believes that despite the expected economic downturn, Veralto’s WQ and PQI segments will show resilience due to their market exposure to essential consumer goods, including food and pharmaceuticals.
Overall, VLTO ranks 10th on our list of top stocks in Bill Gates’ portfolio with huge upside potential. While we acknowledge the potential of VLTO to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that has gone up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks have lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than VLTO but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
