Billionaire Warren Buffett’s holding company, Berkshire Hathaway Recorded an all-time record when its shares (Type A) closed last night for the first time at a price of more than half a million dollars.
The closing price of the stock was $ 504,000, following a positive return of about 11% that the stock has recorded since the beginning of the year. This is in contrast to the negative momentum in the US market, thanks in part to Buffett’s fondness for value stocks over growth stocks, including technology companies that have suffered deep declines in recent months.
At the same time, in the annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, the 91-year-old investment genius introduced Dark As one of Berkshire’s four giants, it even noted that it is the second most important company after the insurance companies cluster, thanks to its CEO Tim Cook who defined as brilliant. The investment giant began buying Apple shares in 2016, and until mid-2018 held 5% of Apple shares, Which were then worth $ 36 billion.Today the value of the investment already stands at more than $ 160 billion – 40% of Berkshire’s investment portfolio.
The recent rise in the stock pushed Berkshire’s market capitalization to more than $ 730 billion, overtaking the technology and social media giant Meta (Facebook) And has become the only non-technology company on the list of the 10 largest public companies in the United States.
Berkshire Type A shares are from the conglomerate’s original offering. Buffett has previously stated several times that he will never split stocks (splitting them, similar to the move Amazon recently announced) because he believes the high stock price will keep and attract quality-oriented investors for the longer term. In 1996, the company issued shares Type B At a lower price, due to the demand for a cheap option among small and private investors. As of last night, the share price stands at about $ 337 – after climbing about 12% since the beginning of the year.
Operating profit jumped 45% in the quarter
Berkshire recently published its reports for the fourth quarter and for the entire year 2021. Operating profit, Buffett’s preferred index for determining profitability, climbed 45% in the quarter to $ 7.3 billion, and rose 25% year-over-year to about $ 27.5 billion. Berkshire Hathaway also pointed to its confidence in its shares, when in 2021 it purchased its own shares for a record $ 27 billion.
The report also showed that at the end of 2021 Berkshire no longer held shares in the Israeli pharmaceutical company nature And after 4 years Buffett gave up his holding and came out of the investment at a loss.