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