Stock Advice from the Gates Foundation

In the fourth quarter of 2008, the Gates Foundation lost 19% of its value bringing its total to $9.07 billion.

So what are they doing to try and stop the bleeding? It appears they increased their stake in McDonald's Corp. to 6.4 million shares from 4.9 million shares.

They bought a one-million-sharestake in Coca Cola Enterprises Inc., the largest Coca-Cola bottler as well as increased their stake in Coca-Cola to 5.7 million shares from 2.7 million shares.

Interestingly they increased their stake in auto dealership group Autonation to 10.2 million shares from 7.7 million shares.

They shed stakes in troubled financial companies American International Group and Washington Mutual.

And finally, theycut their stake in Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.