Have you ever wondered which company has the most expensive stock in the world? That’s not very difficult to find, but one has to go through a lot to explore almost every other company across the globe having a substantial stock value.
To help you with that, we have compiled a list of the 15 most expensive stocks in the world. We have also mentioned their total market capitalization (in United States dollars).
15. Graham Holdings Company
Image Courtesy: tradingview.com
Share price: 580 USD
Market Cap: 3 B
Exchange: NYSE
The Graham Holdings Company is a U.S based holding conglomerate that owns or has majority stakes in various newspapers, cable television, and websites. In 2013, the company sold one of its trademark newspapers, The Washington Post, to Nash Holdings (controlled by Jeff Bezos) for $250 million.
Its other prized assets include Kaplan Inc. and The Slate Group, which runs the popular Slate Magazine. Through its media arm, Graham Holdings controls a total of six television stations running in six different U.S states. The company achieved its highest-ever stock price in July 2015, when it was trading at $703/share.
13. MRF
Stock Price: 1,055 USD
Market Cap: 4.5 Billion
Exchange: NSE (India)
MRF, short for Madras Rubber Factory Limited, is India’s largest multinational tire manufacturer, which also produces conveyor belts, paints, tubes, and toys.
The company was initially started as a toy balloon manufacturer in 1946 at Tiruvottiyur, Chennai, before entering into the tread rubber industry in 1952. The company didn’t enter into the Nylon tires manufacturing business until 1973.
12. White Mountains Insurance Group
Image Courtesy: tradingview.com
Stock Price: 1,100 USD
Market Cap: 3.41 B
Exchange: NYSE
Headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda, White Mountains Insurance Group is a financial services holding company that owns or has significant stakes in brokerages, life insurers, and reinsurance companies. It also has interests in tech companies that engage in the insurance business.
According to their official website, the insurance company has total assets of approximately $6.5 billion and an adjusted shareholders equity of around $3.6 billion. It is a component of the Russell 1000 Index.
11. Tesla, Inc.
Tesla Model 3 cars | Image Courtesy: Flickr/Steve Jurvetson
Stock Price: 1,172 USD
Market Cap: 1.1 trillion
Exchange: NASDAQ
Founded in 2003, Tesla Incorporation is a clean energy company that manufactures electric cars and lithium-ion batteries. Since its inception, though the company has had several profitable quarters in its way, its first and only profit-booking year was 2020.
The year 2019 turned out to be reasonably successful for the company. Tesla’s total car sales in 2019 recorded a 50% jump from the previous year. Its revenues almost doubled between 2017 and 2018.
Tesla’s stock entered a rally, the biggest in its history, on November 29, 2019, trading around $330.
10. Markel Corporation
Markel Building Image Courtesy: Christopher Rand
Stock Price: 1,329 USD
Market Cap: 18.24 Billion
Exchange: NYSE
Markel Corporation is a U.S based holding company involved in the insurance and investment business around the world. It went public in 1986, trading at $8.33 per share, valuing the company at $15 million. Since its inception, Markel Co. has acquired multiple companies in different sectors through its investment arm. Globally, it has more than 76 offices in over 18 nations. Markel Corporation entered the Fortune 500 for the first time in 2016.
9. Mettler-Toledo International
A Teldo Scale
Stock Price: 1,469 USD
Market Cap: 33.9 B
Exchange: NYSE
Mettler Toledo specializes in manufacturing different types of analytical and scientific instruments. It’s one of the largest suppliers of weighing instruments used in industrial complexes, labs, and retail stores. Most of its sales come from European and American markets.
The company’s stocks skyrocketed in 2017 from around 415 price/share at the beginning of the year to about 642 price/share in December 2017, after they announced a profit of approximately $384 million in the fiscal year of 2016.
8. Cable One/Sparklight
Image Courtesy: Cableone.com
Stock Price: 1,711 USD
Market Cap: 10.33 B
Exchange: NYSE
Cable One is one of the leading ISP and cable service providers in the United States. Until 2015, the company was a subsidiary of Graham Holdings company. After its departure from Graham Holdings, the company’s share registered a steady jump from around $400 in February 2016 to $758 price/share in October 2017. It’s an S&P 400 component.
7. AutoZone
Image Courtesy: tradingview.com
Stock Price: 1,788 USD
Market Cap: 37.49 B
Exchange: NYSE
AutoZone is the largest retailer of auto parts in the United States ahead of its domestic competitor Advance Auto Parts. Apart from its more than 6000 retail outlets in the United States, the company has divisions in Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Brazil.
After years of steady growth, AutoZone’s stock began rallying in January 2010, when the company was trading at $155 and reached its maximum in July 2016 with a price/share of $815.
6. The Booking Holdings
Image Courtesy: Bookingholdings.com
Stock Price: 2,453 USD
Market Cap: 100.75 Billion
Exchange: NASDAQ
Booking Holdings was initially launched in 1997 as a single website, Priceline.com, which allows users to buy travel packages at discount rates. In just two years, in 1999, the company went public and made its founder a big-time billionaire.
In 2013, the company bought Kayak.com, a travel metasearch engine, for $1.8 billion before changing its name to Priceline Group. Its most significant acquisition to date, however, came in a year later when it bought OpenTable, an online restaurant reservation company for $2.6 billion.
Furthermore, the company acquired Momondo Group, Cheapflights, and Rentalcars.com to expand their business. Its name was finally changed to Bookings Holdings in 2018.
6. Alphabet Incorporation
Googleplex, Mountain View, California, USA
Stock Price: Class A – $2,924; Class C – $2,928
Market Cap: 1.9 trillion
When Google went public in 2004, it made three of its topmost executives a billionaire, and several high-rank employees an instant millionaire. During its IPO, Google offered its one share at $50, which crossed $500 mark for the first time in 2013.
The company went through a corporate restructuring in 2015, in which Google and its other business became a direct subsidiary of the Alphabet Inc. white retaining their old stock symbol and ticker.
In 2019, Alphabet Inc. was ranked 15th on the Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S corporation by total revenue. It became only the fourth (American) company to cross $1 trillion market capitalization in January 2020.
5. Amazon Inc.
Whole Foods Market, one of Amazon’s many subsidiaries
Stock Price: 3,312 USD
Market Cap: 1.68 Trillion
Exchange: NASDAQ
Amazon Inc. is currently the third most valuable publicly traded company in the world and the largest retailer in the United States by market capitalization. Along with Google, Apple, and Facebook, Amazon is often called the four horsemen of the tech industry.
Read: 16 Most Expensive Deals in Tech Industry
In October 2017, Amazon’s majority owner and founder Jeff Bezos surpassed Bill Gates in the list of the wealthiest person after the company’s stock increased by 2.5%. During that time, his estimated personal wealth was more than $100 billion. Apart from e-commerce, the company has a strong presence in cloud computing, artificial intelligence, robotics, and the media industry.
4. Seaboard Corporation
Seaboard Corporation owned refrigerated container and a marine vessel
Stock Price: 4,000 USD
Market Cap: 4.64 Billion
Exchange: NYSE
Seaboard Corporation is a multinational conglomerate that specializes in agribusiness and transportation operations. The company has interests in pork and sugar production, commodity trading, cargo shipping, and the power sector.
From 2009 to 2013, the company’s total sales almost doubled from $3.6 billion to $6.6 billion. The stock reached its all-time high in March 2015, when it touched $4,600 mark for the first time in its history. The company took a relatively small dip in 2016 but effectively recovered.
3. NVR Inc
NYSE
Stock Price: 4,908 USD
Market Cap: 17.24 Billion
Exchange: NYSE
One of the most expensive stocks in the world, NVR, Inc., is a U.S based construction and mortgage company established in 1980 and went public in 1993. The company has three direct subsidiaries; NVHomes, Rymarc Homes, and Heartland Homes, through which it does all its business.
NVR’s primary focus is in the Eastern markets, mostly for single-family homes, townhomes, and condominiums. In 2017, it outperformed major indices as its stock prices more than doubled from $1,700 in Jan 2017 to $3,508 on December 29. It is an S&P 400 component.
2. Lindt & Spruengli AG
An Issued stock of the Chocoladefabrik Lindt & Sprüngli AG in 1930
Stock Price: 120,832 USD
Market Cap: 26.47 Billion
Exchange: SWX (Switzerland)
Lindt & Spruengli is a Swiss multinational confectionery company, which now owns five of the biggest chocolate-producing establishments in the world, including Russell Stover Candies, maker of the popular Whitman’s Chocolate, which was acquired for about $1.5 billion in 2014.
In the fiscal year 2017, the company reported total revenue of $4.17 billion and an operating profit of about $606 million, a 14.6% increase from last year. Alongside Mars.Inc, Nestle and Hershey Co., Lindt & Spruengli is one of the ten biggest chocolate producers in the world.
1. Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire Hathaway’s Majority stockholder Warren Buffet with Barack Obama
Stock Price: 434,244 USD (Class A)
Market Cap: $653.1 Billion
Industry: Insurance, real estate, media, consumer goods
Berkshire Hathaway is, by far, the most expensive stock in the world. During one of his company’s annual shareholder meetings, Warren Buffet, the founder and chairmen, announced that buying out Berkshire Hathaway in 1964, was perhaps one of the biggest mistakes he ever made during his entire investing career.
He further claimed that had he not bought more shares of the company and directly invested the capital to the insurance business, the money would have paid big time by now.
Read: 26 Worst Stock Market Crashes In History
But here it is, Berkshire Hathaway now owns more than 60 different companies in various sectors, while owning majority stakes in as many as 20 other companies including the likes of Coca-Cola Company, BOA (Bank of America), and Apple. It is currently the sixth-largest publicly-traded company (by market capitalization) in the world.
Hermès International S.A. is trading at $1,400.