Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathway share surges past $200,000

NEW YORK: Berkshire Hathaway traded above $200,000 for the first time, further validating chairman Warren Buffett’s decades-long bet on the US economy. The Class A shares climbed 0.5 per cent to $200,637 at 10:33 am in New York. That’s more than 60 times Seaboard Corp, the agribusiness and transportation company that has the second-highest price among stocks listed on US exchanges.

“It’s a huge milestone,” said Buffett biographer Andrew Kilpatrick. “It proves how far things have come, and you start to wonder, and imagine in your wildest dreams, ‘Where is this thing going?’”

Buffett has shunned the share splits favoured by other large companies such as Apple Inc and Wal-Mart Stores, saying a high price discourages short-term speculation. He also rejected a call to institute a dividend and rarely repurchases shares. That’s given him funds to build the company into the fifth-largest in the world by market value through acquisitions and stock picks. Berkshire reached the latest milestone about seven years and 10 months after the stock first reached $100,000. That’s about a year less than it took to double from $50,000. Berkshire beat the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index in both periods