Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Security Holder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
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Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Security Holder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
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Market Information
Berkshire’s Class A and Class B common stock are listed for trading on the New York Stock Exchange, trading symbol: BRK.A and BRK.B. The following table sets forth the high and low sales prices per share, as reported on the New York Stock Exchange Composite List during the periods indicated:
| 2016 | 2015 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Class A | Class B | Class A | Class B | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| High | Low | High | Low | High | Low | High | Low | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| First Quarter | $ | 215,130 | $ | 186,900 | $ | 143.40 | $ | 123.55 | $ | 227,500 | $ | 215,151 | $ | 151.69 | $ | 142.50 | ||||||||||||||||
| Second Quarter | 221,985 | 205,074 | 148.03 | 136.65 | 223,012 | 204,800 | 148.57 | 136.08 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Third Quarter | 226,490 | 211,500 | 151.05 | 140.95 | 217,100 | 190,007 | 144.69 | 125.50 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fourth Quarter | 250,786 | 213,030 | 167.25 | 141.92 | 207,780 | 192,200 | 138.62 | 127.46 |
Shareholders
Berkshire had approximately 2,300 record holders of its Class A common stock and 20,200 record holders of its Class B common stock at February 15, 2017. Record owners included nominees holding at least 430,000 shares of Class A common stock and 1,300,000,000 shares of Class B common stock on behalf of beneficial-but-not-of-record owners.
Dividends
Berkshire has not declared a cash dividend since 1967.
Common Stock Repurchase Program
Berkshire’s Board of Directors (“Berkshire’s Board”) has approved a common stock repurchase program under which Berkshire may repurchase its Class A and Class B shares at prices no higher than a 20% premium over the book value of the shares. Berkshire may repurchase shares in the open market or through privately negotiated transactions. Berkshire’s Board authorization does not specify a maximum number of shares to be repurchased. However, repurchases will not be made if they would reduce the total value of Berkshire’s consolidated cash, cash equivalents and U.S. Treasury Bills holdings below $20 billion. The repurchase program does not obligate Berkshire to repurchase any dollar amount or number of Class A or Class B shares and there is no expiration date to the program. There were no share repurchases under the program in 2016.
Table of Contents
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