A required quarterly holdings disclosure, called a 13F filing, shows the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust opened a $352.7 million position in The Home Depot (HD) while trimming its Berkshire Hathaway stake by approximately $818 million. The trust now holds 1 million shares of Home Depot across a portfolio that totals $34.42 billion in managed 13F securities, according to WhaleWisdom data.
The position arrived alongside Home Depot's Q2 fiscal 2026 earnings, reported August 18. Net sales reached $47.9 billion, up 5.7% year-over-year. Comparable sales grew 1.7%, the highest reading since 2022. Adjusted diluted earnings per share came in at $4.92, up from $4.68 in the prior-year period.
None of those numbers were driven by a housing recovery. CFO Richard McPhail told CNBC the company continues to operate in what he called "frozen housing market conditions," yet said it is taking market share. The growth is coming from smaller, non-discretionary repair and maintenance work. When a roof leaks or a water heater fails, it gets replaced regardless of where mortgage rates sit.
Home Depot received $730 million in tariff refunds during Q2 and applied $685 million of that to reduce cost of goods sold, passing the benefit through to customers.
Bank of America analyst Christopher Nardone reiterated a Buy rating after earnings, lowering his price target to $407 from $412. The reduction reflects cautious full-year guidance the company reaffirmed rather than raised. Home Depot projects total fiscal 2026 sales growth of 2.5% to 4.5%, comparable sales growth of flat to 2.0%, gross margin of approximately 33.1%, and operating margin between 12.4% and 12.6%, according to the company's own guidance.
The Gates Foundation's existing portfolio concentrates on long-duration industrials: Berkshire Hathaway Class B (BRK.B), Caterpillar (CAT), Canadian National Railway (CNI), Waste Management (WM), and Deere and Company (DE), according to GuruFocus data. Home Depot, as the world's largest home improvement retailer, fits that pattern. The same 13F filing also shows a new $180 million position in FedEx Freight Holding Company (FDXF) opened in the same quarter.
As of August 20, HD shares were trading at $334.49, down 1.41% year-to-date and 14.53% over the prior year, according to Yahoo Finance. Bank of America's $407 target implies roughly 22% upside from that level.