Berkshire Hathaway’s stock price is too high for Nasdaq computers

Re:Berkshire Hathaway’s stock price is too high for Nasdaq c... by quickthrowman on Tuesday May 04, 2021 @07:45PM (#27044299)

They issued a 2nd class of share, BRK.B, which is around $280/share right now and equates to 1/1500th of an BRK.A share. Berkshire A shares are convertible to B shares, but the converse isn’t possible.

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Re:Berkshire Hathaway’s stock price is too high for Nasdaq c... by exporectomy on Tuesday May 04, 2021 @08:01PM (#27044424)

How can it not be possible? Surely if you have 1500 B shares, you can sell them and buy an A share?

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Re:Berkshire Hathaway’s stock price is too high for Nasdaq c... by quickthrowman on Tuesday May 04, 2021 @08:09PM (#27044477)

Yes, but Berkshire’s stock transfer agent won’t handle the conversion from B to A. You sell them on the market and are taxed accordingly.

Their stock transfer agent will give you B shares in exchange for an A share, which is not a taxable event. It’s a mechanism to encourage arbitrageurs to keep the prices of the share classes in lockstep.

https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/brkshareholderinfo/compab....

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Re:Berkshire Hathaway’s stock price is too high for Nasdaq c... by ahelwer on Tuesday May 04, 2021 @08:14PM (#27044497)

Wouldn't going from B to A count as a wash sale?

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Re:Berkshire Hathaway’s stock price is too high for Nasdaq c... by calvinlh on Tuesday May 04, 2021 @08:35PM (#27044645)

Yes, but that only stops you from claiming capital loss, you still pay taxes on gains

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