Stocks Are Getting Pricier as S&P Soars, Fewer Firms Do Splits
High Price No Hurdle for Gains as Stock Prices Outpace S&P 500
(Bloomberg) -- You can add stocks to the seemingly endless list of things that cost a lot more these days.
The average share price in the S&P 500 Index has surged 24% to $209 this year, thanks to big gains from some of the highest-priced shares like Alphabet Inc. and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. That’s outpaced the 21% gain achieved by the benchmark, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
High price tags obviously come hand-in-hand with a booming market where nothing seems to stop investors from pouring money into stocks. Also contributing to the faster appreciation in the average share price is fewer companies splitting their stocks these days. Only three S&P 500 companies have announced splits this year. That’s compared with an annual average of nine over the decade through 2019, data compiled by S&P Dow Jones Indices and Bloomberg show.
Nearly one in six stocks in the S&P 500 cost more than $300, about 10 times the average hourly wage of an American worker. Nine trade for more than $1,000, up from seven a year ago.
Homebuilder NVR Inc. has the most expensive stock in the S&P 500 with shares costing more than $5,000 apiece after an eight-fold surge in the past decade. Mettler-Toledo International Inc., a maker of weighing instruments, trades for around $1,500.
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