Berkshire’s Stock Closes at a Record $90,360

Some investors who are looking for relative value in the stock market may be turning to a name controlled by the ultimate value investor.

Shares of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the investment and holding company chaired by Warren E. Buffett, closed above $90,000 on Monday for the first time. Berkshire’s class A stock rose $770 to a record $90,360 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Berkshire’s lower-priced class B shares rose $30 to $3,016, also on the NYSE.

The company’s stock lagged behind the broad market last year, rising 16% compared with a 26% gain for the blue-chip Standard & Poor’s 500 index. But it has been on a hot streak in recent weeks and is up nearly 7.3% this year, compared with 3.9% for the S&P; 500.

Buffett owns about 480,000 Berkshire class A shares, worth $43 billion at Monday’s price. Forbes magazine lists him as the second-richest American, after Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates.

Berkshire is an amalgam of businesses, including insurance, retailing, shoe manufacturing and the See’s Candy chain. Berkshire also controls a huge portfolio of stocks in companies including Gillette Co., Coca-Cola Co. and Wells Fargo & Co.

But is Berkshire a value at its current price? A recent Bloomberg Markets magazine analysis of the stock, using input from a dozen analysts and money managers, concluded that it was at worst “reasonably” priced -- although the magazine conceded that judging Berkshire’s value was difficult because the company is so complex.

Buffett, as is his usual practice, declined to comment to Bloomberg on the stock’s merits.