Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway sets, closes at record high

Berkshire Hathaway’s share price set a record high on Monday, reflecting investors’ confidence in Warren Buffett’s company, which is often regarded as a microcosm of the broader American economy.

The price of Berkshire’s Class A shares closed up 2.1% at USD 652,997.17. They earlier reached USD 653,861, surpassing the previous high of USD 647,039 set on Feb. 26. Berkshire’s more widely held Class B shares are worth about 1/1,500th as much.

Monday’s gain boosted the market value of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire to approximately USD 937 billion, based on reported shares outstanding. The stock trades at about 23 times the full-year operating profit that analysts project.

Some stock price services show Berkshire’s record-high Class A share price was USD 741,971 on June 3. That appears to reflect a glitch that also caused the price of the Class B shares to briefly fall more than 99% that day.

Berkshire owns dozens of insurance, energy, manufacturing, retail and service businesses including Geico car insurance, the BNSF railroad, Berkshire Hathaway Energy and Dairy Queen ice cream.

It also owns a huge stock portfolio led by Apple, whose share price has risen 37% since the end of March.

Despite having donated more than half his Berkshire stock since 2006, the 93-year-old Buffett still owns about 14.5% of the company, worth about USD 135.8 billion.

His overall fortune is about USD 137 billion, making him the world’s eighth-richest person, Forbes magazine said on Monday.

Berkshire shares have risen 20% this year, compared with an 18% gain in the Standard & Poor’s 500.

Over the last decade, Berkshire shares have performed close to the index, but with less volatility, after accounting for dividends. Berkshire does not pay a dividend.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Jan Harvey, and Matthew Lewis)