What is the most expensive stock in the world

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Rebecca Cattlin
By :  ,  Former Senior Financial Writer

What is the most expensive stock in the world?

The most expensive stock in the world is Berkshire Hathaway Inc Class A shares, which have been trading at over $400,000 since April 2021. The company also ranks among the most highly-valued companies in the world, with a market capitalisation of over $632 billion.

Berkshire was originally conceived as a textile company but was latterly bought by CEO Warren Buffett to be a holding company for his investments. Buffett is known as the Oracle of Omaha, due to his reputation of being one of the most successful investors in the world. Berkshire Hathaway owns firms such as FlightSafety International, NetJets, Fruit of the Loom, GEICO, Helzberg Diamonds, Lubrizol, Dairy Queen, and BNSF. Meanwhile it holds minority stakes well-known brands like Apple, American Express Coca-Cola, and Wells Fargo.

Berkshire Hathaway shares are so expensive because they have never undergone a stock split. When companies split their stock, they increase the number of shares outstanding and decrease the price of each share, usually to make them more accessible to investors. However, Buffett is against the idea of short-term traders thinking they can speculate on the stock, so has decided to keep the price high to deter speculators.

Learn more about what a stock split is

Instead, Berkshire Hathaway issued Class B shares, which trade at a much more reasonable price of around $279.04 at the time of writing.

What is the most expensive US stock?

Berkshire Hathaway is the most expensive stock in the US, but as we’ve already taken a look at Berkshire, let’s look at the second most expensive stock in the US, which is NVR. The homebuilder and mortgage banking company has a current share price of $5,095.00, at the time of writing.

Despite the high share price, NVR ranks pretty low in terms of market capitalisation. The company is valued at $18.16 billion – which doesn’t even rank it in the top 400 US stocks by market cap. So why is it so expensive? Well, like Berkshire, NVR has never split its stock. It’s likely this is also part of a plan to keep speculators at bay, providing stability to the share price.

What is the most expensive UK stock?

The most expensive UK stock is Personal Assets Trust, whose shares currently trade at around £490 each. The company is an investment trust that runs portfolios for private investors with global interests. The reason the company’s shares trade so high are that – according to PAT’s earnings report - it’s the company’s policy to ‘to ensure that its shares always trade at close to net asset value through a combination of share buybacks…and the issue of new or Treasury shares’.

You might’ve been expecting shares on the FTSE 100 to outrank a FTSE 250 firm, but even the most expensive stocks on the FTSE 100 might surprise you. For example, despite being the most highly-capitalised company on the London Stock Exchange, AstraZeneca (AZN) shares fall short to Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) – trading at £81.33 compared to SPX’s £162.60 share price.

What is the most expensive European stock?

The most expensive European stock is Tatra Banka, which trades at around €19,700 ($23,246) per share. The company has a market cap of $1.6 billion.

Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Spruengli AG, more commonly known as Lindt, is the second most expensive European stock. Its shares currently trade at approximately CHF 10,600 ($11,498).

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