Technical issues at the New York Stock Exchange on Monday appeared to cause Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Class A shares to fall nearly 100%.
Trading was halted for these stocks, as well as shares in Barrick Gold and NuScale Power, which also saw sharp declines.
In an update at 10:11 a.m. ET, the New York Stock Exchange said it was investigating a technical issue related to upper and lower limit bands, mechanisms that prevent excessive fluctuations in stock prices.
At the time trading was halted, Berkshire Hathaway’s Class A shares had recorded fewer than 4,000 transactions that day. Trading in the Class B shares continued and was down less than 1% as of Monday morning.
The move did not appear to affect the value of major market averages.
Berkshire’s original Class A shares are typically among the most highly priced on Wall Street. Last week, the shares sold for about 45% more than the median U.S. home price, and on March 28, the Class A shares hit an all-time high of $634,440 at closing.
That’s because Buffett has never split the stock, hoping to attract long-term, investment-minded shareholders, and the Ben Graham disciple has said many of Berkshire’s shareholders use their stock as a savings account.
Berkshire Hathaway offered Class B shares in 1996 at one-thirtieth the price of Class A shares to cater to smaller investors who wanted a piece of Buffett’s business.
Buffett is Berkshire Hathaway’s largest shareholder, owning more than 38% of the company’s Class A shares, according to FactSet. The “Oracle of Omaha” has pledged to give away the fortune he made at Berkshire Hathaway, the Omaha-based conglomerate he has run since 1965.
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