There are six companies in the S&P 500 that have share prices over $500. They do not have anything particularly noteworthy in common. Most are well-known among the American public, however, and some are among the best known brands in the United States. Perhaps coincidentally, several are also among the largest U.S. companies, as measured both by market cap and revenue.
Most investors cannot afford to buy stocks priced over $500, as even a small number of shares would require an investment of thousands of dollars. Any of the companies on this list could easily split their stocks to bring down share prices. Since the controlling shareholders of some of these companies are far more concerned with total value than they are with share price, none of these companies have split their shares recently. Large institutional investors are also among those with stakes in these companies. For these entities able to buy billions worth of stock, the price of a single share is irrelevant.
At least three of the companies on the list are run by their founders: Amazon, Alphabet and Berkshire Hathaway.
Click here to see the 6 stocks over $500.
To identify the six companies with shares over $500, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed stock prices of public S&P 500 companies using FINVIZ, a stock screening service. Share price and market cap figures are from Yahoo! Finance. One-year stock price changes are for the 12 months through March 17, 2016.
These are the six companies with share prices over $500.
1. The Priceline Group Inc.
> Ticker: (NASDAQ: PCLN)
> Industry: Online travel
> Share price: $1,347
> Market cap: 66.9 billion
> One-yr. price chg.: +17%
>Annual revenue: $9.2 billion
Perhaps best known for long-time spokesman William Shatner, Priceline is one of the largest and oldest online travel companies in America, founded in 1997. Priceline had $55 billion in gross bookings in 2015. Among the company’s brands are OpenTable, Bookings.com, Priceline.com and KAYAK.
2. AutoZone Inc.
> Ticker: (NYSE: AZO)
> Industry: Car parts
> Share price: $787
> Market cap: $24 billion
> One-yr. price chg.: +19%
>Annual revenue: $10.2 billion
As its busiest sales season of the year approaches, AutoZone will add over 10,000 full-time and part-time workers to work in some of the company’s more than 5,100 stores across the United States. AutoZone not only operates stores, it also has extensive online catalogs.
3. Alphabet Inc.
> Ticker: (NASDAQ: GOOGL)
> Industry: Internet
> Share price: $760
> Market cap: $523 billion
> One-yr. price chg.: +36%
>Annual revenue: $75 billion
Formerly known as Google, Alphabet is the parent company of a number of companies, including Google and YouTube. The holding company sells products that range from its self-driving car initiative to its Android operating system. Alphabet continues to get almost all of its revenue from advertising places at Google.com and affiliated online sites.
4. Intuitive Surgical Inc.
> Ticker: (NASDAQ: ISRG)
> Industry: Surgical systems and parts
> Share price: $587
> Market cap: $22 billion
> One-yr. price chg.: +15%
>Annual revenue: $2.38 billion
Intuitive Surgical has several products at the vanguard of the global surgical industry. Among the most recent of these are robotic-assisted operating tools. In the fourth quarter, Intuitive Surgical posted earnings well above expectations, as the company posted revenue of $677 million and net income of $190 million.
5. Amazon.com Inc.
> Ticker: (NASDAQ: AMZN)
> Industry: E-commerce and entertainment
> Share price: $559
> Market cap: $264 billion
> One-yr. price chg.: +50%
>Annual revenue: $107 billion
Amazon is the largest e-commerce company in the United States and also one of the oldest online businesses, founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos, its current CEO. Since then, Amazon has diversified well beyond its role as an online superstore. Its AWS division is among the largest providers of cloud computing services in the world. Amazon also competes with Netflix and Apple as a provider of streaming video products.
6. Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
> Ticker: (NYSE: BRK-A)
> Industry: Conglomerate
> Share price: $213,900.00
> Market cap: $352 billion
> One-yr. price chg.: -2%
>Annual revenue: $210 billion
Berkshire Hathaway is Warren Buffett’s conglomerate. It owns several dozen companies, which include one of the largest railroads in the United States, a private jet sharing business and the Buffalo News. Berkshire also has an investment portfolio with positions in shares of some of America’s best known companies, including Coca-Cola, IBM and Wal-Mart.
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