Warren Buffett Has Donated This Much of Berkshire Stock

The Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, has donated a whopping $3.4 billion of Berkshire stock this year.

The billionaire investor’s annual donation of stock was to five foundations.

His company, Berkshire Hathaway, issued a press release that announced that Buffett had converted

11,867 of his Class A shares into around 17.8 million Class B shares to make the contributions.

13.5 million shares are going to the Gates Foundation (Bill and Melinda Gates) and are worth around $2.6 billion going by Monday’s closing price of $192.

With this year included, the total donated to the Gates Foundation is 243.3 million Class B shares. This is just under 49 percent of the 500 million shares pledged. The gift in 2019 will bring the total percentage to 51 percent.

Next to the Gates foundation, four family foundations are also receiving stock which are the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, Sherwood Foundation, Howard G. Buffett Foundation and NoVo Foundation.

“When I have money to give away, I believe in turning it over to people who are … energized, working hard at it, smart … doing it with their own money, the whole thing. And I get to keep doing what I like doing. So as far as I’m concerned, I haven’t given away a penny,” Buffett had said.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Class A (NYSE: BRK.A) and have not been compensated for this article.