The most expensive share in the world today is worth over $ 300,000. This is a stock in Berkshire Hathaway, a company led by the genius investor Warren Buffett.
Berkshire Hathaway is an American holding that invests in a wide variety of industries, from auto insurance and gas supply to wholesale.
Why are the company's shares so expensive?
That's a good question. In fact, 300 thousand dollars is a huge amount, and Buffett is well aware that there are not so many people in the world who are willing to invest in a single company. But for Buffett, this is not a disadvantage, but an advantage. In his interview, he put it very clearly:
"I don't want anyone to buy Berkshire stock thinking they can make a lot of money quickly."
This phrase reflects the fundamental position of Buffett as an investor who has always preferred to invest "for the long term" - in this investor's portfolio, securities can be stored for years or even decades.
Buffett never chased short-term gain. He once even made a million dollar bet that no one could beat his conservative investment for ten years - and he won that bet despite being outplayed by a very reputable trader. It turned out that simply putting money in stock papers and waiting 10 years is much more profitable than fighting in the markets every day, trying to instantly win at the rate races.
However, let's also look at the technical side of the issue: after all, there are not so few old companies in the world that have existed for nearly a hundred years, why are their shares not worth half a million dollars each?
The answer is simple. Typically, companies split shares when the price gets too high. For existing shareholders, it is not important whether to own, say, one share for $ 1000 or five for $ 200. But for new investors, the price of $ 200 will be much more attractive, since it will allow even those who do not have much free funds to invest. This is how companies attract new investors.
And Warren Buffett, following his "no quick deals" policy, never split stocks. This is how a share that was worth $ 300 in 1980 is worth $ 300,000 in 2020. It is easy to calculate that the stock has risen in price 1000 times, and the gain was 99,900 percent. True, it took 40 years to wait.