For The First Time, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Shares Has Reached $500,000 in Value
On Monday, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc saw its stock price hit $500,000 for the initial time, underlining the company’s standing as a defensive investment in a market shaken by events in Ukraine and growing inflation.
The year before, Berkshire Hathaway made a record $27.46 billion as operating profit, thanks to gains at Geico car insurance, the BNSF railroad, as well as Berkshire Hathaway Energy.
Berkshire Hathaway’s Class a Shares
Berkshire Hathaway’s Class A shares are up 10% in 2022, outperforming the Standard & Poor’s 500 indexes, which is down 12%.
As per Forbes magazine, the Omaha, Nebraska-based firm’s market worth is at $731 billion, rating sixth in the U.S.A., and Buffett’s 16.2 percent ownership makes him the world’s 5th-richest person with $119.2 billion.
The year before, Berkshire Hathaway made a record $27.46 billion in operating profit, thanks to gains at Geico car insurance, the BNSF railroads, plus Berkshire Hathaway Energy.
This also owns a slew of other companies, including Clayton Homes, a rapidly expanding mobile home division, and the biggest residential real estate agency in the United States.
Berkshire specializes in “on-the-ground, Main Street-style company activities,” according to Bill Smead, CEO of Smead Capital Management Inc in Phoenix, which also invests $4.3 billion-plus owns Berkshire stock.
“They’re big and they’re not a tech stock, and investors get comfort from that.”
After underperforming in 2019 and 2020, Berkshire shares marginally beat the S& P 500 in 2021. On Monday, they finished at $493,785, up 0.8 percent.
The majority of Berkshire’s operating entities are based in the United States, where about 77 percent of the company’s 372,000 people work.
Dairy Queen is one of those developing outside of the United States, with plans to open 600 new locations in China by 2030, which is already the company’s largest market outside of the United States.
When Warren Buffett took over the faltering textile company Berkshire Hathaway in 1965, the stock was trading for less than $20. Its Class B shares are approximate 1/1500th the value of its Class A shares.
Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc., Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc., plus Tesla Inc. are among the US firms with higher market capitalizations. Berkshire Hathaway’s largest common stock position is Apple.
Berkshire Hathaway had $146.7 billion in cash at the end of 2021, but it has subsequently spent well over $5 billion on Occidental Petroleum Corp as oil prices have risen.