Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares used to be only for Fat Cats, yacht-owners, and "I-have-so-much-money-I-don't-know-what-to-do-with-it" types. They were trading at $3,476 each, before each share was split into 50 smaller shares in 2010. This stock split is known as "Baby Berkshire."
Why the split? Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares weren't traded enough to make them part of the S&P 500, i.e. they were too cool for school. Splitting the few, large, expensive shares into more affordable, lil' baby shares brought them into the mainstream, which didn't take long.
Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares were split into 50 baby shares each at the end of January, and joined the popular kids in the S&P 500 in early February.
Why doesn't BRK split so that it's not a gadjillion dollars a share and impossible for Joe Sixpack to buy? Because servicing millions of shareholders is way more expensive than servicing tens of thousands. And the number itself is kind of a victory lap for W-Buff, who opens every annual report with its stock price in the mid 70s as a kind of friendly FU to everyone running laps slower than BRK. Which is pretty much everyone.
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Finance: Who is Warren Buffett?16 Views
finance a la shmoop who is Warren Buffett
no that's Warren Buffet that guy always over does it on the crab legs there in [Guy eating a crab leg and throws the scraps back onto the buffet]
Vegas this is Warren Buffett world's most successful investor he bet big on [Buffett talking to Obama]
the insurance industry arguably the greatest legal industry on the planet [Chips being put on the insurance industry]
how does that work while keeping it simple you've bought term life insurance
you pay 50 bucks a month at age 25 to get half a million dollars in policy for
your family if you die they make Bank that is their policy pays them a half a [Guy collapses and a grave stone appears]
million bucks if you die but you don't usually die it's not each month you keep
going along so this month passes your 50 bucks goes to Warren and co it's called [Grim reaper at the door then he says he is at the wrong house]
Geico and they count it that's it they just stick it in their pocket very high [Someone counting money and then putting it into a jeans pocket]
margin yes they have to leave some money for the million dollar death
that'll happen way down the line or in some random a case where a guy got hit [Guy waiting at a bus stop]
by a bus or something like that so it does happen but generally the insurance [Guy is hit by the bus that arrives]
industry is a very high margin lucrative industry Buffett saw that and bet big on
it he also bet big on the stock market and [Even more chips being placed on the insurance industry and some being put on the stock market]
called the great market swings of our era almost perfectly his style almost
never trade he buys and holds forever ish he has run a massively concentrated
portfolio for a very long time with tens of billions of dollars just in a few [Examples of Buffetts holdings appear]
stocks such that a normal mutual fund of his size might have a thousand names
where he has just a dozen big bets big Brunswick's down there his personal life [Someone bowling]
not so happy rough marriage ignored kids for whom he
has openly apologized for being a lousy father his work was really his family [A worlds best dad mug with worst written on it]
which is kind of sad for the guy who could buy pretty much everything but
didn't here's where he lives in Omaha named after a Peyton Manning NFL signal
call he famously Shops at Walmart spends little money on himself and will end up [Buffett shopping with only a few basics in his basket]
giving away virtually all of his fortune to the Gates Foundation yes that gates [Buffett opening a vault full of money for Bill Gates]
Uncle Bill ever wonder who picks up the dinner tab but when they go out to eat [People arguing over the bill]
anyway Buffett and gates will have merged their fortunes into the cent a
billion zone yes a hundred billion dollars of charitable money [Big piles of money being merged together]
billion and change they're gonna fight to cure cancer malaria aids tuberculosis
bad short games and whatever other awful diseases may arise in the future but
terminal nerdism lands here to stay [Bill Gates in hospital for nerdism]
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