You see a stock price like $200 and think, "Wow, that’s getting up there." Then you look at Nvidia or Meta and see those triple digits and think you're looking at the heavyweights. Honestly, you're not even in the right ballpark. If you want to know what is the highest stock price ever recorded, you have to look past the tech giants and into a world where a single share costs more than a literal mansion in the Midwest.
We are talking about numbers that look like typos.
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Right now, as we sit in early 2026, the undisputed king is still Berkshire Hathaway’s Class A shares (BRK.A). On May 2, 2025, it hit a jaw-dropping closing high of $809,350. To put that in perspective, you could buy a fleet of Ferraris for the price of one single "A" share. Even with the market cooling slightly since then—trading around $742,300 in mid-January 2026—it remains the most expensive piece of paper (well, digital entry) you can own in the financial world.
Why Is the Highest Stock Price So Ridiculous?
Most people assume a high stock price means a company is "worth" more. That is a total myth. Market cap is what matters for size, but the price of a single share is basically just a math problem: Total Value divided by Number of Shares.
Warren Buffett, the guy behind Berkshire, famously hates stock splits. Most companies like Apple or Tesla split their stock when the price gets too high. If a stock hits $1,000, they might do a 10-for-1 split, making each share cost $100. It doesn't change the company's value; it just makes it easier for regular people to buy in.
Buffett? He doesn't care about "accessible."
He wants long-term partners, not people trying to make a quick buck on a Friday afternoon. By keeping the price at $740,000+, he ensures that only serious institutional investors or the ultra-wealthy are at the table. It stops day traders from creating "noise" in the price. It’s a gatekeeping strategy that has worked for decades.
The Swiss Chocolate Contender
If you think Berkshire is the only one playing this game, check out the Swiss. Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG—yeah, the gold bunny people—have a stock price that is equally wild. Their "Registered Shares" (LISN) were trading at roughly CHF 117,200 ($136,000 USD) recently.
It’s the most expensive stock in Europe.
Like Berkshire, Lindt keeps its share count low and avoids splits to maintain a certain level of "prestige." There is something kinda poetic about a chocolate company being one of the most exclusive investments on Earth.
The 2026 Leaderboard: What Most People Get Wrong
When you search for the highest stock price, you'll often see lists that mix up "highest price" with "highest return." They aren't the same thing. A stock could go from $1 to $100 and give you a 10,000% return, while Berkshire could go from $700,000 to $750,000 and only give you a few percentage points.
Here is what the actual heavy-hitter list looks like in early 2026:
- Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A): ~$742,300. The heavyweight champ.
- Lindt & Sprüngli (LISN): ~$136,000. Chocolate royalty.
- NVR, Inc. (NVR): ~$7,100. They build houses, and apparently, they build massive share prices too. They haven't split since their IPO in the 90s.
- Booking Holdings (BKNG): ~$4,700. The parent company of Booking.com and Priceline.
- Seaboard Corporation (SEB): ~$4,100. A massive agribusiness and shipping conglomerate you’ve probably never heard of.
Notice something? Microsoft and Apple aren't even close. Apple is sitting around $275. Why? Because they’ve split their stock many, many times. If Apple had never split, a single share would likely be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars today, too.
The Transition Period
We are actually in a weird era for Berkshire. Warren Buffett officially retired at the end of 2025, handing the keys to Greg Abel. A lot of people thought the stock would crater once the "Oracle of Omaha" left the building.
It didn't.
Investors realized that Berkshire is basically a collection of cash-cow businesses like GEICO, BNSF Railway, and Dairy Queen. The "Buffett Premium" might have shrunk a little, but the intrinsic value of those companies keeps the share price in the stratosphere.
The Downside of High-Priced Stocks
Is there a catch? Sort of.
If you want to buy Berkshire A, you usually need a specialized broker or a massive account. You can't just go onto a basic app and buy $5 worth of it (unless that app offers fractional shares, which many do now).
But there’s a bigger issue: Liquidity. Because the price is so high, very few shares trade every day. On a typical day in January 2026, only about 300 to 500 shares of BRK.A change hands. Compare that to Nvidia, where millions of shares move every hour. If you own a share of Berkshire A and need to sell it instantly, you might find that the "bid-ask spread" (the difference between what a buyer wants to pay and what a seller wants) is a few thousand dollars wide.
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You’re basically trading a piece of fine art rather than a standard stock.
Real Examples of "Price vs. Value"
Let's look at a weird example. Seaboard Corporation (SEB) has a stock price of $4,100, but its market cap is only about $4.5 billion. Meanwhile, Nvidia has a stock price of around $140 (post-splits), but it is worth over $3 trillion.
If you just looked at the price, you’d think Seaboard is "bigger." It’s not. It’s a tiny fraction of Nvidia’s size.
This is the trap that catches new investors. They see a high price and think it’s a "strong" company. Or they see a $5 "penny stock" and think it’s a bargain. Honestly, the price per share is the most irrelevant number in all of finance, yet it's the one we obsess over.
Actionable Insights for Investors
If you're looking at these monster stocks and wondering if you should care, here is the reality:
- Look at "Class B" Shares: If you want to invest in Berkshire but don't have $750k under your mattress, look at BRK.B. It’s designed to track the "A" shares but at a fraction (1/1500th) of the price. It’s currently around $495.
- Don't Fear the Price Tag: A high stock price often signals a management team that is focused on long-term shareholders rather than hype. NVR and Booking Holdings are great examples of "boring" companies that have crushed the market precisely because they don't play the "split and hype" game.
- Check the Market Cap: Always compare the share price to the total market capitalization. If the price is $5,000 but the market cap is small, you might be dealing with a "low float" stock that can be extremely volatile.
- Fractional Shares are Your Friend: Most modern brokerages (Fidelity, Schwab, Robinhood) allow you to buy $10 worth of a $700,000 stock. You don't need to be a billionaire to own a piece of the world's most expensive companies.
The highest stock price isn't a trophy; it's a choice by the company's board. Whether it's $800,000 or $8, the only thing that actually puts money in your pocket is the percentage of growth. But it sure is fun to look at a stock ticker and see a number that could buy a house.