Billionaire Warren Buffett dropped to his lowest rank ever on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index this week after donating nearly $3 billion worth of his Berkshire Hathaway stock to five charities.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BRK.B | BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC. | 182.90 | +4.10 | +2.29% |
The donation, which included the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was part of the 89-year-old CEO’s plan to eventually give all of his Berkshire stock to charity. He disclosed the annual gifts on Wednesday.
After his latest donations, Buffett held 248,734 Class A Berkshire shares worth around $67.6 billion. Altogether, he donated nearly 16 million Class B Berkshire shares.
Buffett’s wealth now ranks below that of Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as well as former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, MarketWatch reported.
The https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/, which was first released in 2012, places the Berkshire Hathaway CEO at number eight on the list – down from the top five only a month ago.
Buffett has been giving away blocks of Berkshire stock since 2006. His gifts were worth more than $37 billion based on Berkshire’s share price when the gifts were given.
This year, Buffett also estimated how much he has saved in tax deductions over the years as a result of his charitable contributions. Buffett said that for every $1,000 in contributions he has made, he has been able to reduce his state and federal income taxes by 43 cents.
