Generally, health care stocks like HCA are considered defensive investments—meaning they’re a conservative choice with minimal risk of losing money. Revenues clocked in at $19.2 billion, up 9.6% year over year and diluted EPS increased by 42.6%. HCA does manage to keep a clean financial sheet and positive free cash flow.
What Are the 10 Most Expensive Stocks Right Now?
The company was founded in 1871, and is one of the largest landowners in Texas. Run by billionaire and legendary investor Warren Buffet, Berkshire Hathaway is a holding conglomerate for multiple businesses including GEICO and Fruit of the Loom. At first glance, investing in some of the most expensive stock might seem out of reach to the average and beginner investors. Berkshire Hathaway is far from the only stock that has risen to a high share price.
Apple Inc. (AAPL)
Farran Powell is the managing editor of investing at Forbes Advisor. She was previously the assistant managing editor of investing at U.S. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including TheStreet, Mansion Global, CNN, CNN Money, DNAInfo, Yahoo! Finance, MSN Money, and the New York Daily News. She holds a BSc from the London School of Economics and an MA from the University of Texas at Austin. To sum up, before making a stock purchase, apply research and learn how to invest in stocks.
- Many stock analysts also examine the company’s overall management team and leadership.
- The stocks listed here are probably out of reach for most retail investors.
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- But the Santa Clara, California-based company has managed to dig in its heels and gain market share in the CPU, GPU and data processing space.
- It can either be significant changes in the stock price or if the company issues excess shares or repurchases it, changing the number of outstanding shares.
Nvidia vs AMD: Stock Comparison
It won the award for ‘Best Company Compensation and Best Company Perks & Benefits’ in 2023. Advertising amounts to a whopping 97.8% of the company’s revenue, as per 2023 data. Get stock recommendations, portfolio guidance, and more from The Motley Fool’s premium services.
You’ll also want to consider the company’s future growth since that will affect stock appreciation and earnings. Look through reports, stay current on the news and follow expert analysis. Many stock analysts also examine the company’s overall management team and leadership. Retail investors need to know which stocks may be difficult to trade because of their high per-share price.
How to Invest in Apple Stock
This division has three different brands, which are Ryan Homes, NVHomes, and Heartland Homes. NVR’s building products division supports the homebuilding unit by providing and delivering building supplies. AutoZone is a car parts and accessories retailer and distributor.
A stock split occurs when companies issue additional shares to their existing shareholders. Companies commonly split their stocks using 2-for-1 or 3-for-1 ratios. This action increases the total number of shares held by investors, boosts the stock’s liquidity, and decreases the stock price. Berkshire Hathaway is a classic example of companies that never split its stock. From a purely financial standpoint, market capitalization majorly indicates the size and success of a corporation. It is the total value of a company’s outstanding shares multiplied with the current price of each equity share.
What Is the Highest Stock Price Right Now?
It significantly increased the size of its software division with the acquisition of VMware in November 2023. Explore the world of large-cap stocks and learn how these can shape your portfolio. Google’s dominance over online searches hasn’t been without controversy, as Alphabet has been embroiled in antitrust lawsuits. In August 2024, a judge found that Google acted illegally to monopolize online search and advertising. While prosecutors wanted the court to force Google to sell its Chrome browser, a judge rejected that option and instead ruled that Google must share search data with competitors. ELV faces challenges with its debt management, with a negative free cash flow (as of September 2025).
Microsoft Corporation is involved largely in the development and support of software, services, devices and solutions worldwide. Founded by a chemist and Union Army veteran of the same name, Eli Lilly is one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. It was the first company to mass-produce insulin and the polio vaccine.
Investing in Large-Cap Stocks
- Like most companies in the semiconductor space, AMAT faces geopolitical risk because of its exposure to customers like Samsung and TSMC, which are based in Asia.
- It’s also partnered with OpenAI, although there have been recent reports of tension between the two companies.
- For this article, GOBankingRates defined “expensive” by the quoted stock price.
Thanks to trading apps such as Robinhood, smaller investors can now buy fractional shares. Hence, splits may become more infrequent than in previous decades. As market cap is calculated by multiplying the total number of a company’s outstanding shares and the price per share, two factors can alter the figure. Market cap is even necessary to put a stock’s price into context. A company could have a share price of $3 — but if there are 1 billion shares outstanding, the stock may be far more expensive than the per-share price suggests. JPMorgan Chase & Co is the largest bank in the United States and the largest bank in the world by market capitalization.
Key Data Points
JPMorgan has launched multiple ventures in the growing cryptocurrency market. It partnered with Coinbase, one of the leading crypto exchanges, in July. The partnership makes it easier for the bank’s customers to invest in cryptocurrency. The bank is also incorporating AI technology into its operations.
Higher leverage can increase HCA’s risk profile and limit its financial flexibility. Elevance provides medical, dental, pharmaceutical and disability plans through affiliated health insurance companies like Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield.
It’s also worth noting that not all brokers offer their clients the option to purchase fractional shares, making even these high-flyers accessible. Some of the most sought-after stocks are those that come with a hefty price tag and many of us equate value with price. The higher the price, the more valuable and, therefore, the more desirable a company becomes. The average investor may not be able to afford a single share of the highest prices stocks from the following companies.
This has no real effect on the company’s market cap, but results in lower share prices. But remember, a high stock price in and of itself does not equal a company’s total market value. This is determined by market capitalization, which is the number of shares outstanding multiplied by the share price. A company’s stock price by itself, without knowing how many shares there are, is not useful. For instance, a company with ten shares at $1 million each would certainly have a high share price, giving a total value of $10 million. Another company may have ten million shares at just $200 a piece, but it would be worth $2 billion.
They can be highly profitable as well; 15 of the stocks on this Best forex trading platform list outperformed the S&P 500 over the past five years. Tech companies, in particular, can often be profitable investments. They make up the top five — and eight of the top largest companies by market cap.