Utilized by career wall street investors and day traders alike, stocks can be one of the most lucrative ways to make a killing in the right hands. A stock’s value is calculated based on a variety of insights about a company, such as its assets, profit, and influence. The value of a share is reflected in the market capitalization of a company, which is determined by individual stock price multiplied by the number of outstanding shares. The most expensive stocks in the world are typically traded by top tier investors who can afford large volumes of each share, which can make profiting off such companies difficult for the ill-informed.
10. Madras Rubber Factory ($MRF) – $1,100/share
Madras Rubber Factory is a rubber factory situated in Chennai India. It is the 14th largest tire manufacturer in the world and makes a wide variety of rubber products for companies around the world. Its 8 massive manufacturing centers export goods like tires, treads, and paints to over 65 countries worldwide.
Although there are larger rubber producers, MRF has a 24% hold on the rubber market. Madras Rubber Shares are particularly expensive due to the fact the company is only trading three million shares , and has not split its shares to reduce their individual cost. The company has a market capitalization of 3.8 billion.
9. Markel ($MKL) – $1,170/share
Markel is a lesser-known company, but it fulfills a vital purpose. Founded in 1930 as a bus and taxi insurance firm, Markel now serves as a holding company insurance and investment companies. It specializes in obscure insurance like Motorcycle, ATV, yacht, pollution, and environmental insurance. Since its inception, Markel has been instrumental in developing legislation for public transit insurance.
Markel has a market cap of 15.58 billion dollars, and its stock price has risen roughly 10% since 2017. It is considered a great long-term stock and is held by many important investors. The company also has numerous ventures unrelated to insurance, including AMF Bakery Systems, Costa Farms, and Elliot Dredges machine company.
8. Alphabet ($GOOG) – $1,285/share
Alphabet Inc. was known as Google Inc. before the company underwent a corporate reconstruction in October of 2015. The restructuring made Alphabet Inc. the parent company of Google and its subsidiaries, making it an extremely powerful conglomerate in the process. Alphabet is the parent company of Google, Google Fiber, Waymo, Calico, Verily, and several others. Alphabet Inc’s shares are traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
As of 2018, Alphabet Inc’s market cap is 876.85 billion – almost a 100 billion dollar increase since 2017. Alphabet Inc also acquired smartphone company Redux, Tenor GIF Search, Velostrata Cloud Services, and Cask (a Big Data management company) in 2018. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin both have a net worth of 55.7 billion.
7. Amazon ($AMZN) – $1,779 per share
Without a single shred of doubt, Amazon is one of the most powerful companies in the world today. Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos is worth 150 billion, making him the richest person in the world (the 2nd richest person, Bill Gates is worth $90 million). With a market cap of 858 billion dollars, Amazon is rapidly approaching a market cap of 1 trillion.
The price of Amazon stock has steadily increased since its initial public offering, Since 2017, its price per share has increased by approximately 50% from $1,172 per share. At its current rate, Amazon is poised to have the largest market cap in the world.
6. Booking Holdings Inc. ($BKNG) – $2,028 per share
Formally known as the Priceline Group, Booking Holdings Inc. is a Connecticut-based travel fare aggregator. Although Priceline.com and its associated sites (Kayak.com, Booking.com, Opentable, Momondo, and Rentalcars.com) help people save money, the company still profits greatly from its useful services. Their biggest brand is Booking.com, a lodging reservation site with over 1.5 million available properties as of 2018.
Booking Holdings Inc. makes a majority of its profits from commissions. The company made over 12.7 billion dollars in 2017. As of 2018, Booking Holdings Inc. has a market cap of 97.7 billion dollars on the NASDAQ.
5. NVR Incorporated ($NVR) – $2,845 per share
NVR Inc, known as Ryan Homes until 1980, is a home building and mortgage company based in Reston, Virginia. Some of NVR’s subsidiaries are NVR Mortgage, Finance Inc., NVR Services Inc., NVHomes, Ryan Homes, Fox Ridge Homes, and Heartland homes. The company has built over 365,000 family homes throughout the United States.
Ryan Homes took home 5.275 billion dollars of revenue and 697.6 million dollar of profit in 2017. Although it is a smaller company compared to others on this list, like Madras Rubber it has not yet split its shares. Although NVR’s stock price is down from $3,500 since 2017, the company is still very successful and remains one of the most respected luxury homebuilders in the USA.
4. Seaboard Corporation ($SEB) – $3,565 per share
The Seaboard Corporation is responsible for transporting numerous products from all over the world. It specializes in the transport of pork products, produce, sugar, poultry, and other commodities from overseas. It also has a 50% stake in Butterball Inc.
Seaboard is consistently included on the Fortune 500 list of companies. The company earned 5.81 billion in revenue in 2017. Although the stock has decreased from around 4,300 in 2017, forecasts for Q4 2018 remain positive.
3. Next PLC ($NXT) – $5,500 per share
British clothing retailer Next is one of the most popular clothing companies in Europe. It has 700 stores, 519 of which are located exclusively in England and Ireland. Its other brands include women’s designer Lipsy and Next Sourcing for its in-house projects.
Although Next Sales are at an all time high in 2018, their stock price has slumped due to excessively warm weather. Next PLC made $5.6 billion in revenue in 2017, with a net revenue of $853 million. It is one of the fastest growing clothing retailers in Europe and has overtaken many other popular brands in sales and revenue.
2. Lindt & Spruengli AG ($LISN) – $80,000 per share
Chocolate used to be an exorbitantly luxurious treat. Although it is a treat enjoyed by almost everyone today, the share price of Lindt & Spruengli AG reflects the just how beloved the treat is. The company has been making chocolate and confectionery since 1836. Its subsidiaries include Ghirardelli, Caffarel, Russell Stover, and Hofbauer chocolatiers.
Lindt made 4.1 billion in revenue in 2017. Its stock price has risen approximately $10,000 since 2017. The shop profits from its own shops as well as sales from retailers it distributes to – Lindt products can be found in locations from drug stores to specialized locations.
1. Berkshire-Hathaway ($BRK) – $300,000 per share
Although Berkshire Hathaway is thought to be the brainchild of Warren Buffet, it was actually purchased by him in 1962. Since then, Buffet has been an instrumental guiding force in the direction of the company. His 36% stake in the company accounts for a vast portion of his $84 billion dollar net worth.
Berkshire Hathaway’s Class A share price has always been expensive because the company has never split its shares. The company also makes massive amounts of money – in 2017 alone, it made $250 billion dollars of revenue with an income of $44.94 billion.
