Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares used to be only for Fat Cats, yacht-owners, and "I-have-so-much-money-I-don't-know-what-to-do-with-it" types. They were trading at $3,476 each, before each share was split into 50 smaller shares in 2010. This stock split is known as "Baby Berkshire."
Why the split? Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares weren't traded enough to make them part of the S&P 500, i.e. they were too cool for school. Splitting the few, large, expensive shares into more affordable, lil' baby shares brought them into the mainstream, which didn't take long.
Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares were split into 50 baby shares each at the end of January, and joined the popular kids in the S&P 500 in early February.
Why doesn't BRK split so that it's not a gadjillion dollars a share and impossible for Joe Sixpack to buy? Because servicing millions of shareholders is way more expensive than servicing tens of thousands. And the number itself is kind of a victory lap for W-Buff, who opens every annual report with its stock price in the mid 70s as a kind of friendly FU to everyone running laps slower than BRK. Which is pretty much everyone.
Related or Semi-related Video
Finance: What is the S&P 500?45 Views
finance a la shmoop. what is the S&P 500? well the S&P 500 is just an index- that
is the standard and poors company assembled 500 stocks put them on a
spreadsheet- this was a spreadsheet in 1957 -and they tracked them. [spreadsheet pictured]
well the index had something like 37 shares of Procter & Gamble, the 23 shares
of Ford, 18 shares of IBM and so on. in the 1950s the S&P 500 totaled something
like 40 maybe 50 bucks on a good day. at the end of each day the elves who worked
inside of the S&P Factory, they would add up the shares basically ignore any
dividends and send to the press a total which was published to more or less
everyone who cared about investing. well not nearly even a century later the 40 [man reads newspaper]
to $50 reign to the SNP is today knock on the door of 2,500 .so without even
having dividends reinvested you'd have made 50 times your money with dividends
reinvested to buy more shares instead of keeping the cash to buy you know
groceries or electric massage slippers. you'd have made over 70 times your [grocery display case and slippers pictured]
original investment. welcome to America.
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