$200,000 a Share: Buffett's Berkshire Hits Record High

NEW YORK -- Shares in U.S. investment star Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway group topped $200,000 apiece for the first time Thursday, less than eight years after breaking the $100,000 barrier.

Already the priciest on U.S. markets, Berkshire shares got even more expensive for investors in a 7.5% climb since the company announced record quarterly earnings at the start of August.

In midday trade, Berkshire A shares were up $2,495.64, or 1.3%, to $202,104.64.

Buffett has become a legend for the performance of Berkshire, which has a large number of majority and minority investments in everything from small jewelry and furniture retailers to insurance giants Geico and General Re, chemicals group Lubrizol, Coca-Cola (IW 500/28) (KO), IBM (IW 500/11) (IBM), American Express, Wells Fargo Bank and dozens of others.

To make the shares more accessible to small investors, Berkshire created a second class in 1996 when the A shares rose to around $33,000 each. The B shares, labeled "Baby Berkshires" at the time, went out at just $1,000.

Eventually they grew out of reach of small market players, and underwent a 50-to-1 split in 2010, a move also made to help the company finalize its takeover of Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad.

On Thursday the B shares were up 1.3% to $134.79.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2014