What are the most expensive stocks

Regardless of whether you're a day trader or a long term investor, the 20 most expensive stocks in the US will cause a double-take! No matter what one's situation is, or what the economy's situation is, investing is always a necessity, and is always better than money just sitting in your bank losing value by the day. This is especially true today, where inflation has crossed double digits or near enough in most countries including the United States, where it reached an all time high of 9.1% in June.

On the other hand, investing seems like a risky exercise because of the uncertain economy, as the US stock market recorded its worst first half in more than half a century this year, and many major stocks have plunged, with tech stocks being particularly susceptible to major decreases. People have considered switching to investing in cryptocurrency, especially after the dizzying gains seen last year, but the unstable industry has cost many their life savings as bitcoin declined by more than 70% off its all time high, while other alt-coins suffered even worse fates, exposing to the masses the risks of investing in a completely unregulated industry.

When investing in stocks, it is important to not just jump on the bandwagon, but carry out the necessary research and understand both the technicals and fundamentals of a stock. It is important to check the growth of a company, with CAGR, or compound annual growth rate an excellent indicator, while also checking profitability, profit trends, net assets, debt and liquidity among many other aspects. There are ratios you can use that make it easy to assess companies and compare companies, though it is important to remember that benchmarks may be different for different industries. For example, the growth rate of a tech company will tend to be much higher than a pharmaceutical company, but that doesn't make it a better buy automatically.

However, it is also important to remember that just because a company is registering strong sales, that doesn't mean that its share price will increase in a corresponding manner. Often, these expected increases are built into the share price, which means that if a company registers strong growth but less than what analysts expected, the share price will actually fall. For example, if company A delivers a growth rate of 12% but analyst predictions and market sentiment expected a growth rate of 15%, the share price will fall as the expectation of a 15% growth rate was already baked into the share price.

If you are looking for the most expensive stocks in the US to identify the best stocks to buy, this isn't a very robust investment approach. Investment professionals usually recommend investing in the biggest stocks by market value instead of stocks that have the highest share price. The reasoning is straightforward. The most expensive stocks are usually the stocks that had high stock returns in the past but never decided to split their shares. On the other hand, biggest stocks by market value usually had higher stock returns but decided to split their shares to make them more affordable for the average investor. One example is Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA). Last week Tesla Inc.'s stock had a 3-1 split which meant each Tesla share is now worth around $300 instead of $900. However, this doesn't mean that Tesla's entire market value went down by two thirds. Tesla shareholders now own 3 shares instead of one share before.  Two years ago Tesla also had a 5-1 split. If Tesla didn't have these two stock splits its stock price today would have been $4500 instead of $300 and Tesla would have been one of the companies in our list of the most expensive US stocks.

If you are looking to invest in some of the most expensive stocks in the US, know that most expensive stock has a share price that costs more than a decent home! For our rankings, we have taken the share price of each company from Yahoo Finance.

20. Graham Holdings Company (GHC)

Price on 27 August 2022: $575.5

You will notice a few holding companies in the 20 most expensive stocks in the US, starting with Grahams Holding Company, a conglomerate which has holdings in broadcasting, healthcare, energy production, manufacturing, restaurants, autom0tive and education industries.

35 Entry Level Job Opportunities for Economics Majors

Copyright: convisum / 123RF Stock Photo

19. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN)

Price on 27 August 2022: $596.18

The American biotech company was found\ed 34 years ago, and recorded nearly $8.5 billion in revenue in 2020. While the company initially focused on neurotrophic factors and their regenerative capabilities, the company has branched out into cytokine and tyrosine kinase receptors.

Pressmaster/Shutterstock.com

18. Atrion Corporation (ATRI)

Price on 27 August 2022: $608.93

Atrion Corporation is involved in the production and manufacture of medical devices and related components, with most products catering to the cardiovascular and fluid delivery markets.

Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock.com

17. Transdigm Group Inc. (TDG)

Price on 27 August 2022: $631.02

A leading company in the aerospace industry, TransDigm Group (TDG) was created in 1993 through the merger of four aersospace firms, with the company being involved in the production of aerospace components.

16. BlackRock Inc. (BLK)

Price on 27 August 2022: $676.44

The biggest asset manager in the world, BlackRock currently has more than $10 trillion in assets under management, with operations in 70 offices spread across 30 countries, while maintaining clients in at least 100 countries.

BlackRock Inc. (BLK), NYSE:BLK, Yahoo Finance,

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15. O'Reilly Automotive (ORLY)

Price on 27 August 2022: $698.79

The auto parts retailer is involved in the provision of tools, supplies, aftermarket parts, and miscellaneous equipment and accessories. O'Reilly Automotive has more than 5,600 stores across the country and maintains operations in 47 states, in addition to maintaining stores in Mexico.

14. First Citizens BancShares Inc. (FCNCA)

Price on 27 August 2022: $813.77

One of the largest banks in the United States, First Citizens BancShares is a bank holding company with close to 600 branches in 19 states. The company was founded more than a century ago and has been led by Robert Powell Holding's family for three generations.

13. Alleghany Corporation (Y)

Price on 27 August 2022: $841.21

Alleghany Corporation is an investment holding corporation which was initially created to manage the railroad interests of railroad barons Oris and Mantis Van Sweringen, evolving to a behemoth which recorded $12 billion in revenue in 2021.

12. MercadoLibre Inc. (MELI)

Price on 27 August 2022: $877.8

MercadoLibre is an Argentine company which operates online marketplaces for e-commerce and online auctions. It maintains operations in several South American countries and is Latin America's most popular e-commerce website in terms of number of users.

11. Cable One, Inc. (CABO)

Price on 27 August 2022: $1,192.46

We are now talking about the most expensive stocks in the US, where the share price is at least $1,000 if not more, starting with Cable One, which is a broadband communications provider, with close to a million customers.

Click to continue reading and see the 10 most expensive stocks in the US.   Suggested Articles:

Disclosure: None. Most Expensive Stocks in the US is originally published at Insider Monkey.

What are the most expensive stocks

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The stock market has been on a constant rise for many years now, but it still has numerous ups and downs, to the point where it’s practically impossible for anyone to predict what’s going to happen next with the magical numbers on their screen.

This is largely due to more and more individuals actually jumping the fence as they start to invest some money into the stock market. This can be seen as both a good and a bad thing, but for the most part we can safely say that it is the hand that we’ve been dealt, so we should adapt to it.

This is why we always recommend that if you want to keep up with everything that’s going on with the world you will need to keep an open mind about the current situation and react accordingly. NFTs? Crypto? You might not believe in those, but maybe they are here to stay. But stocks still seem to be the safest investing bet, especially if you go for renowned companies. 

What are the most expensive stocks

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Do your own research before you actually start putting your money in and most importantly don’t forget to always strive for more regardless of how big is your current bank account. Some stocks can be pretty expensive, but luckily today you can even buy small fractions of them. 

So, in this article, we wanted to show you which are the top 20 most expensive stocks in the world at this moment.

The information may change the next day or so, but just keep in mind that while the rankings may differ from one day to the next, investing in any of these popular stocks will surely prove to be worth it in the long run. All figures from this article are from March 18, 2022.

With all of that being said, let’s jump right into our first pick of the day, the least expensive of the most expensive stocks out there:

20. O’Reilly Automotive Inc – $689.98

What are the most expensive stocks

seekingalpha.com

O’Reilly Auto Parts is an American auto parts retailer that became one of top players in the US automotive industry in these last decades. It specializes in auto parts, tools, supplies, equipment and practically everything related to cars that comes and goes from the United States.

As of 2022, O’Reilly’s company shares can be purchased for around $700 per unit.

19. Equinix Inc – $732.26

What are the most expensive stocks

blog.equinix.com

One of the world’s current leaders in the digital infrastructure market, Equinix is widely regarded as one of the safest investments from this sector. It might have its headquarters in the US, but it also has several offices in Europe as well and plans to take over the world in the future. 

As for the general price per share though you’re looking at around $730 per unit, and while this may seem out of reach for some people out there, this is justified by the large area of effect that this brand holds power over.

18. Blackrock Inc – $738.59

What are the most expensive stocks

Jeenah Moon / bloomberg.com

Blackrock is by far one of the most influential investment corporations out there, having become one of the leading providers of investment, advisory and risk management solutions right now.

It’s one of the major shareholders in massive companies such as Bank of America, Berkshire and Visa to name a few, and it continues to grow with each passing year.

As of today, Blackrock’s stock value goes for around $740 per unit which is more than acceptable considering the fact that it holds over as many as 9.496 trillion USD in assets.

17. Tesla Inc – $905.39

What are the most expensive stocks

newsweek.com

Way back in 2003, the brilliant minds of Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning decided to work together and create the famous brand known as Tesla Motors.

Its name was derived from Nikola Tesla’s name and from the very start, the goal of the brand was to produce efficient and affordable electric cars for the general populace.

Elon Musk soon became the official chairman of the company and despite not being its founder, he still became the face of the brand and quite aptly so, brought it to the top of the food chain in no time.

Nowadays Tesla is pretty much one of the most recognizable car brands in the world and while their stock shares may be a bit overpriced at around $900 per share, the stock even went though a 5 for 1 split two years ago.

16. MRF Limited – $906.64

What are the most expensive stocks

finpedia.co

MRF, or as it’s better known in the industry, the Madras Rubber Factory, is currently one of the largest tyre manufacturers in India and subsequently around the globe.

The reason as to why it’s such a good investment is because it continues to expand with every passing year, to the point where it may actually be one of the very few corporations that has yet to slow down or stop growing in size and value over the years.

As of 2022 you can purchase an MRF share stock with around $906, but if you think that’s a hefty price wait until you hear about the rest of the brands on this list.

15. White Mountains Insurance – $1,046.29

What are the most expensive stocks

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If you’re looking for a relatively safe yet also very expensive stock to get into, we highly recommend that you check out White Mountains Insurance as despite the fact that it costs a whopping $1,050 per share it is also one of the top names in the brokerages, life insurers and reinsurance niche out there.

They even stated on their official website that they have a total of $6.5 billion in total assets right now which is no laughing matter.

14. MercadoLibre, Inc – $1,185.53

What are the most expensive stocks

Fernando Martello / wikipedia.org

Mercado Libre Inc. is by far one of the most iconic Argentinian companies of all time. It was established in the United States back in 1999 by Stelleo Tolda, Hernan J. Kazah and Marcos Galperin and it quickly became one of the top names in its industry.

What exactly does it do? Well MercadoLibre is currently the largest ecommerce and payments ecosystem that you can find in Latin America, and because of its wide international reach you can start purchasing its shares for the sum of around $1,180 per unit.

13. Mettler-Toledo International – $1,405.23

What are the most expensive stocks

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This brand is known for manufacturing and distributing analytical and scientific instruments all around the world. That may not sound like much but they are also some of the largest suppliers of weighing instruments that you can find in pretty much every lab or retail store around the globe.

The stocks for the Mettler-Toledo International brand actually skyrocketed from 2017 from $415 to $642 by the end of the year. Nowadays the price for its shares is as high as $1,405 but considering how high it rose over the past couple of years it shouldn’t come off as a surprise that this is a fan-favorite.

12. Markel Corporation – $1,429.00

What are the most expensive stocks

markel.com

Yet another top name from the US right here, Markel Corporation is famous all around the globe for its involvement in the insurance and investment worlds.

It actually went public as of 1986 and despite trading for only $8.33 per share, you’ll have to pull out a much larger sum if you want a piece of their stocks today.

In fact, the Markel Corporation now costs as much as $1,429 per share, so if you want to actually get ahead of the curve, you’ll definitely need to start saving a lot of money beforehand.

11. Cable One/Sparklight – $1,528.95

What are the most expensive stocks

linkedin.com

As one of the top ISP and cable service providers in the United States, Cable One has pretty much made a name for itself as one of the safest investments you could possibly make.

This was made all the more obvious when back in 2015 it actually became its own brand by leaving the Graham Holdings company and thus jump in price from $400 to the current $1,528 per share.

Considering the fact that Cable One is an S&P 400 component, it is widely regarded as a good investment option and if you still have any doubts just check out its total market cap value. Words may not convince you but the $10.33 billion market cap definitely should do the trick.

10. Chipotle Mexican Grill – $1,587.73

What are the most expensive stocks

whdh.com

Chipotle may actually be one of the most popular restaurant chains in the world since despite the fact that it specializes in its Mexican food, it has received praises from everywhere around the globe including Germany, France, Canada and of course, the United States as well.

The brand always promotes the fact that they use natural products and animal meat in their production and thanks to their consistency and convenience of service it’s pretty easy to see why it is such a famous name out there.

As of right now, the company’s shares are valued at $1,587 per unit.

9. AutoZone, Inc – $1,952.75

What are the most expensive stocks

autozone.com

Currently holding onto the number one spot as the largest retailer of auto parts in the US, AutoZone is by far one of the most interesting brands on our list simply because of how far ahead of its competition it is.

The second place is taken aptly by Advance Auto Parts and despite the fact that they both make for great choices, AutoZone pretty much left it in the dust for a while now since it has over 6,000 retail outlets out there.

We should also mention the fact that a mere couple of years ago, in 2010, Autozone’s stock costed as much as $155 per unit, which is insignificant when compared to the current price of $1,952 per unit.

8. Booking Holdings Inc – $2,186.31

What are the most expensive stocks

CBRE / ctpost.com

Although it started off relatively small way back in 1997 from a single website known as Priceline.com, this company actually evolved way past that level, going as far as to turn into one of the top brands in the travel industry and making its founder a billionaire within less than 2 years after its inception.

Over the years, the brand actually continued to expand, even purchasing a travel metasearch engine known as Kayak.com in 2013 for $1.8 billion and then also getting the rights to OpenTable, an online reservation company for the whopping sum of $2.6 billion.

Nowadays you can be a part of their dream by purchasing its shares for the astounding price of $2,186 per unit.

7. Alphabet Inc. Class A – $2,722.55

What are the most expensive stocks

Alphabet Inc.

As Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc. quickly made a name for itself for all the products it owns, Youtube, Waze, FitBit, Nest or Waze, just to name a few, apart from Google of course.

Strangely enough though, the brand actually split its stocks into two different share classes that use different ticker symbols depending on their purpose as a whole.

The first one is known as Class A and it is mostly referred to as the common stock by most people. For the most part this is the stock that everyone purchases thanks to its typical one-share-one-vote structure.

The Alphabet Inc. Class A shares will cost you a cool $2,722 per unit, while the Class C on the other hand will go for a little more typically, respectively $2,736 per unit.

6. Alphabet Inc. Class C – $2,736.03

What are the most expensive stocks

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The second listed share class for Alphabet Inc. is known as Class C and it differs from Class A because they have no voting rights. It’s honestly a bit surprising that they’re a tad more expensive than the Class A shares, because those shares offer voting rights as well.

Back in 2014 Google split its shares into GOOG (Class C) and GOOGL (Class A), but there are also class B shares which aren’t traded publicly. Those are held by the company’s founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt

If you are looking to invest into Alphabet, you’ll definitely need to pick the one that suits your needs more beforehand.

5. Amazon Inc – $3,225.01

What are the most expensive stocks

SounderBruce / wikipedia.org

As the third most valuable publicly traded company in the world and by far the largest retailer in the US, Amazon is no pushover and that’s a fact.

It is easily one of the most recognizable names in the world right now and every investor out there is legally obligated to know about it and its influence on the open market.

As of 2022, Amazon will cost you a very big chunk of your money per share, $3,225 per unit to be precise. Is it worth investing in it considering just how massive of a name it is already and how expensive it will be to actually get anything out of this deal?

Honestly that depends on you, all that we can say for now is that as one of the current titans of the tech industry, there’s no doubt about it, Amazon is here to stay. 

4. Seaboard Corporation – $3.973.01

What are the most expensive stocks

Andrew Grumke / KCBJ

The Seaboard Corporation made it big back in 2009 when their total sales pretty much doubled overnight from $3.6 billion to $6.6 billion. As far as their general numbers go though, they reached their peak in 2015 when they finally passed over the $4,600 mark per share.

Nowadays, the Seaboard Corporation shares are valued at $3,973 per unit and while that may sound cheap compared to its 2015 value, it is still way out of a lot of people’s range to say the least.

3. NVR Inc – $4,988.73

What are the most expensive stocks

NV Homes / facebook.com

With by far one of the most expensive stocks in the world right now, NVR Inc. has made a name for itself as one of the top mortgage companies to invest into especially thanks to its three direct subsidiaries which handle all of its business to this day.

Although they primarily focus on the Eastern markets, they continue to rise in value over the years, with its current price being as high as $4,988 per unit.

2. Lindt & Spruengli AG – $116,940.32

What are the most expensive stocks

Lindt Home of Chocolate / tripadvisor.com

This Swiss multinational confectionery company is widely regarded as one of the current leaders in the chocolate industry, especially considering the fact that it owns five of the largest chocolate producers in the world.

It is actually such a massive name on the open market that it is impossible to even picture what the chocolate industry would be like without their branding over literally everything there.

Priced today at 109,000 CHF or $116,960 per share, Lindt & Sprüngli is by far one of the most expensive stocks out there. But we have some good news too. They also have more “affordable” participation shares, at around $11,000.

1. Berkshire Hathaway Class A – $512,991

What are the most expensive stocks

mergr.com

Berkshire Hathaway‘s Class A shares are by far the most expensive stocks in the world, costing you as much as $512,991 for a single share. For the same price you could get 1,500 Class B shares, which are priced at $342, but you won’t have the same voting rights.

As of today, the company owns shares in more than 60 companies in total, 20 of which are literal titans of their industries such as Coca-Cola Company, Bank of America and Apple.

Berkshire Hathaway has reached into most of the world’s top industries including the following: Insurance, real estate, travel, media and consumer goods and it showed no signs of slowing down either, which is why it’s so expensive to purchase its shares.

Conclusion

Investing in stocks is a long game. If you want to start investing we don’t really recommend going for the most expensive stocks out there, but this article might give you an idea of how expensive they could really get.

A few popular stocks like Apple or Microsoft went through several stock splits to keep their price low and make them more affordable, but without those they could have easily been in this list as well.