Does Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B) Have the World’s Biggest Market Cap?

And sure enough, here are all the clues we need. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.B) reports its share counts by class, but it also provides a weighted total figure (on page 19 of the 10-Q, if you’re following along at home). There were 892,000 class “A” shares on the market as of March 31, plus 1.13 billion class “B” tickets. These add up to 1.64 billion class “A” equivalents, counting 1,500 “B” shares as equal to one class “A” certificate. So that’s where Yahoo got its lump-sum share count to arrive at a total $284 billion valuation.

Multiply that weighted total by 1,500 and you get the 2.47 billion figure that Google uses for its Berkshire “B” valuation. So neither one of these popular information services goes to the trouble of calculating the value of each Berkshire stock class separately. Adding the two stocks up is clearly incorrect math: The market caps shown are supposed to represent the whole company — not separate stock classes.

Some assembly required
Doing the sum-of-the-parts math, class “A” shares account for $154 billion of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.B)’s market cap, and class “B” accounts for the remaining $130 billion. Keeping in mind how Berkshire’s market value should be calculated, the only incorrect value here would be the trivial $189 million price tag that Yahoo! reports for class “B” shares. Google went the extra mile and multiplied it by 1,500 to arrive at the correct value.

So there you have it: Apple and Exxon can continue their game of thrones, far above Warren Buffett’s $284 billion conglomerate. Berkshire Hathaway is most certainly not the world’s most valuable company today.

Your favorite sources of stock information may not always get the math right. When you run into strange numbers, SEC filings and some calculator skills will set the record straight.

The article Does Berkshire Have the World’s Biggest Market Cap? originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Anders Bylund.

Fool contributor Anders Bylund holds no position in any company mentioned. Check out Anders’ bio and holdings or follow him on Twitter and Google+. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple and Berkshire Hathaway. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Berkshire Hathaway and Apple, and have also recommended writing puts on Berkshire Hathaway while creating a bull call spread position in Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

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