Thank you for the additional information. It was not clear to me why there were two 1099-Bs. It could be that Publix used two different firms to sell your brother's stock, and therefore, each firm issued their own 1099-B.
If Publix gave your brother shares of stock, this could be a restricted stock unit (RSU). An RSU is a form of employee compensation. If the shares were RSUs, when the shares vested with your brother, meaning your brother owned them outright with no restrictions and could hold them or sell them, Publix should have included the value of those shares on your brother's W-2. Publix probably sold some of the shares to cover the tax withholding.
Because the firm that sold the RSUs did not know their cost basis, they entered 0 as the cost basis on the 1099-B. Therefore, what you need to do is find the per share price on the day the RSUs vested with your brother. You might have to contact Publix to get this information. If they can tell you the per share price that would be helpful too. However, you can always use a third party site to find share prices, such as Yahoo Finance.
What needs to be included on your brother's return is whether the sale of the Publix stock resulted in a gain or loss. Once you know the cost basis, and compare that to the sale proceeds as reflected on the 1099-B, you will know whether there was a gain or loss.
@DallasladyTN
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