Investing in US stocks {from Saudi Arabia} and being able to participate in the action on the American markets is now more intuitive and straightforward than ever before, thanks to technology and a range of options available for investing.
There is quite a bit you should know before you dive in. If you want to invest in US markets right away, here is a quick guide:
- Decide how to invest in US Markets - Trading lets you speculate on the US market's price movements; Dealing lets you take direct ownership of the US stocks and funds.
- Select your favorites – The US market is home to many mega-cap companies, including Apple, Google, and Amazon, and famous benchmark indexes like Dow Jones or ETF giants.
- Take your position – Create an account with a broker like CAPEX.com to get started.
For more info about how to invest in the US markets, you can discover everything you need to know in this guide.
Why invest in US markets?
Investors and traders alike have enough options to invest in the US stock markets, but before you explore the options available, it is worth understanding why you should consider investing in US stocks.
Benefiting from the US growth story
The US markets have many of the biggest blue-chip companies on their bourses, giving investors access to trillion-dollar giants like Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Tesla among others. While each country has its own blue-chip stocks, the sheer size of the US companies makes them a much more interesting alternative. The American markets are also much bigger when compared to the Saudi Arabia benchmark indices (Tadawul All Share Index) for example.
Apart from companies like Tesla, Google, and Apple which are technologically superior o most other companies in the world in their respective industries, US stock exchanges also have companies from China, Japan, and European companies that you can look at.
Geographical diversification
One of the things often talked about when it comes to investing money is diversification. While usually, it refers to allocating your capital across various asset classes, geographical diversification is also an aspect that is worth considering.
While it is possible to adequately diversify an investment portfolio within the asset classes available in India, geographical diversification mitigates the risks that the Indian market on its own carries.
Gaining from US dollar appreciation
The US dollar is the world’s reserve currency and until that is the case, it will have a major advantage over most other currencies in the world.
With the risk currencies declining in comparison to the US dollar, it is prudent to consider plowing in some money in the US markets to safeguard your capital against emerging markets and frontier markets' currency decline.
Invest in fractions
Another interesting aspect of investing in US stocks is that you can trade fractional shares. This is critical because, for instance, a single share of a company like Google (Alphabet) costs around $2,500. Without the ability to buy in fractions, investing in US stocks might be off the limits for a huge portion of investors.
You can invest $100 or any other amount you can afford and slowly build your portfolio over time.
The Major US Stock Exchanges
U.S. market means any of the New York Stock Exchange or the NASDAQ Stock Market. These are the two major U.S. financial securities markets and the largest in the world.
New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)
The NYSE is a stock exchange based in New York, founded in 1790. In April 2007, the New York Stock Exchange merged with a European stock exchange known as Euronext to form what is currently NYSE Euronext. NYSE Euronext also owns NYSE Arca (formerly the Pacific Exchange).
In order to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, a company must have 400 shareholders and 1.1 million shares outstanding. Locals and visitors can also see the exchange's building on Wall Street in New York City—although more than 80% of trading is now done electronically.
The American Stock Exchange (AMEX) was also a popular New York-based stock exchange, which was acquired in 2008. Unlike the Nasdaq and NYSE, AMEX focused on exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Nasdaq
Unlike the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), the Nasdaq is the largest electronic screen-based market. Created by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) in 1971, it is popular because of its computerized system and relatively modern, as compared to the New York Stock Exchange. It currently offers lower listing fees than NYSE and includes some of the largest companies, such as technology giants Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft.
How to invest in US markets?
- Choose how you want to invest in US markets
- Know the ways to invest in the US Markets
- Understand the risks and charges to buy and trade in US Markets
- Understand what drives the US markets
- Research and select your favorite assets
1. Choose how you want to invest in US markets
There are several ways to access the US markets. Choose the option below that best represents how you want to invest in stocks, and how hands-on you’d like to be in choosing the best stocks you invest in.
The main things to consider when defining your investment strategy are your time horizon, your financial goals, risk tolerance, tax bracket, and your time constraints. Based on this information, there are two main approaches to accessing the US markets.
Buy US stocks and stock funds
You might decide to buy into US markets, which means that you take ownership of a portion of the company or fund outright, with the intention of holding it with a brokerage and profiting if it increases in value. Investors will take positions over a longer period, attempting to profit not only from a potential increase in value but from dividend payments as well.
You can buy US stocks and stock funds through our trading platform. First, open your share dealing account online or on CAPEX WebTrader and deposit your funds. Next, log in and go to the CAPEX WebTrader or CAPEX.com app (Install on Google Play or APP Store), and search for the US markets you want to buy.
Finally, choose whether you want to buy the shares and funds at the current market price or if you want to set an order to buy at a specified price. A limit order, for example, sets the price you are happy to pay and executes automatically when the price level is hit.
One of the features of share dealing is dividend payments. If you are due to receive dividend payments from the shares you own, we will pay them straight into your CAPEX Invest account once received.
With us, you can create a share dealing account to buy a stake in a company. You can open an account online or on paper, with 5,000+ stocks and funds to choose from.
We offer low dealing costs, including zero commission on all stocks (terms and conditions apply) based on the account type. Start your journey by creating a demo account to practice your strategy. There is no sign-up or exit fees, with no obligation to fund until you’re ready.
Why buy US stocks and funds with CAPEX.com?
- Low costs
- Wide range of US stocks (over 1.600) and US funds to choose from
- Dedicated support through chat, phone, email
- Ease of access with a mobile app to manage your investments
Trading derivatives on US markets
Trading US markets is an alternative if you do not want to buy the shares and funds outright.
Trading is different to share dealing in that you don’t own the underlying asset, so you can go long or short on the shares. When you decide to trade US markets, you can trade US stocks, indices and ETFs using leverage, which means you put down a small deposit to gain full market exposure.
However, leverage magnifies your exposure because your profit or loss will be based on the full size of your position. If you want to open a leveraged position, you can do so via CFD trading.
A CFD is a contract in which you agree to exchange the difference in the price of shares from when you open your position to when you close it. You can buy CFDs to go long or sell them to go short. As the share price moves in your chosen direction, you make a profit. If it moves against you, you make a loss.
Find out more about CFD trading and learn more about stock trading or how to get started with stocks indices and Exchange-Traded-Funds (ETFs).
Why trade the US markets with CAPEX.com
- You can go long or short – speculating on rising or falling prices
- Since you don’t own the underlying asset, you don’t have to pay stamp duty
- No commission payable when trading US markets – only a spread, and overnight funding charges if your position stays open
- CFD on over 200 US stocks, 5 US stock indices, and up to 50 US stock funds.
2. Know the ways to invest in the US Markets
Now it's time to start doing research on how to invest money. There are diverse ways to invest in US markets and there's a lot to know so doing your research is well worth your time.
Stocks are a good option to consider if you want to invest in specific companies. Just keep in mind that you should analyze the US companies themselves and how it's performing over time:
US Stocks
A stock is a security that gives stockholders the opportunity to buy a fractional share of ownership in a particular company. There are many diverse types of stocks to choose from, so make sure you understand your options, what they offer, and what matches your budget and investing goals:
Value stocks
This is how you can invest like Warren Buffett. He’s been using this strategy since he first stepped into investing in the 1950s.
Value stocks trade at low prices for several reasons. Sometimes a company is recovering from a difficult stretch. Others may have faced legal or regulatory problems in the past. But once these companies recover, they have historically been the best investments on Wall Street.
>> Best Value Stocks to Buy
High dividend stocks
These are US stocks that pay dividend yields higher than the average yield on S&P stocks, which is currently around 1.9%.
Historically, half the return on stocks has come from dividends. For that reason, stocks with high dividends tend to be the better performers over the long term.
The high dividend yield is indicative of a company with strong fundamentals. Many investors are looking for the combination of growth and income that high dividend stocks provide.
High dividend US stocks typically provide at least some downside protection during market declines. That is when investors begin to realize the virtues of stocks that also produce income.
Though they aren’t always top performers in the short run, they tend to be among the best stocks to own long-term.
Growth stocks
These are stocks of companies that are growing faster than companies in the general stock market, and even faster than their competitors.
Most don’t pay dividends at all, preferring to reinvest earnings to generate more growth. The return on growth stocks is in their rising stock price over the long term.
These are also highly risky stocks to own and are best owned through funds. While they have strong potential for price growth, they can also be highly volatile. Though they usually lead the market during bull market runs, they often take the biggest hits in market declines.
Still, growth stocks are among the best type to hold for a long-term return.
>> Best Growth Stocks to Buy
In addition to buying and trading individual US stocks, you can consider a basket of stocks which are all grouped together into one index, ETF, or ‘theme’.
US Indexes
Indices are a measurement of the performance of a group of stocks that are listed on an exchange. Because there is no underlying physical asset to exchange when trading indexes, most index trading is done with financial derivatives like CFDs.
The most popular US stock indexes are Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nikkei 100, while the U.S. Dollar Index (USDX) is a relative measure of the U.S. dollar (USD) strength against a basket of six influential currencies.
USA 30 (Dow Jones Industrial Average)
The USA30 comprises 30 prominent US stocks listed on stock exchanges in the United States: 3M, American Express, Apple, Caterpillar, Chevron, Cisco, Coca-Cola, DuPont, Exxon Mobil, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald's, Merck, Microsoft, Nike, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Travelers, UnitedHealth Group, United Technologies Corporation, Verizon, Visa, Walmart, and Walt Disney.
USA 500 (S&P 500)
The USA500 measures the performance of 500 large companies listed on US stock exchanges. Some of these include 3M, Adobe Systems, Alphabet, Amazon, American Express, Berkshire Hathaway, Boeing, Citigroup, Coca-Cola, eBay Inc, Exxon, FedEx, General Motors, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, Harley-Davidson, Hewlett Packard, Hilton, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan, Mastercard, McDonald's, Nasdaq, Nike, Oracle, PayPal, PepsiCo, Salesforce, Starbucks, Twitter, Visa, Walmart and more.
US Tech 100 (NASDAQ 100)
The US Tech 100 contains the 100 largest companies in the technology sector in the US. Unsurprisingly, the Nasdaq is one of the global indexes that we hear a lot about and is highly regarded by stock index traders.
Some stocks represented by the Nasdaq 100 include Adobe, Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet Inc., Amazon, Amgen, Apple Inc., Autodesk, Cisco, Citrix, eBay, Expedia, Facebook, Hasbro, Intel, Intuit, Marriott, Micron, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Netflix, Tesla, Workday, and more.
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs)
Unlike stocks, which represent just one company, ETFs represent a basket of stocks. Since ETFs include multiple assets, they may provide better diversification than a single stock. That diversification can help reduce your portfolio’s exposure to risk. Exchange-traded funds let you invest in lots of US stocks all at once, and ETFs often have lower fees than other types of funds. ETFs are traded more easily too.
The first ETF was the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 Index, and which remains an actively traded ETF today.
Other popular ETFs to watch are:
- The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA) (“diamonds”) represents the 30 stocks of the Dow Jones Index.
- The iShares MSCI World ETF (EEM) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of developed market equities.
- Sector ETFs track individual industries and sectors such as energy (XLE), technologies (XLK), utilities (XLU), or financial services (XLF).
- Commodity ETFs represent commodity markets, including gold (GLD), silver (SLV), or crude oil (USO).
There are two routes to investing in crypto ETFs: speculating on their prices using CFDs or buying the fund units in the hope they increase in value.
ThematiX
Thematic investing is an investment strategy based on global trends or themes believed to be disrupting the market. Many investors believe that these themes (for example, AI or electric vehicles) have the potential to generate above-average market returns in the future.
Thematic investing is sometimes seen as a type of impact investment – using themes that may contribute to the advancement of various technologies or structural shifts within economies.
Thematic investing is aligned to structural shifts like digital economies and smart cities. It can also include sustainable investing that can be done through environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG), food revolutions and clean energy etc, depending on what you believe in.
With CAPEX.com, you can invest in themes via CFDs.
You want to get familiar with the several types of investment vehicles and understand the risks and rewards of each type of security. For example, US stocks can be lucrative but also very risky. Building a diversified portfolio with individual US stocks can be time-consuming, especially for people just starting out. That's why experts recommend beginner investors focus on index funds, or ETFs, which give you a wide selection of US stocks in one go.
3. Understand the risks and charges to buy and trade in US Markets
The risks and charges vary depending on whether you trade CFDs on US shares or buy traditional shares. Trading can be seen as riskier than traditional share dealing, due to the use of leverage. But, buying shares of US stocks also carries a risk – and there is no guarantee that your investments will increase in value, so you could receive back less than you initially invested.
Before deciding how to invest in US stocks, you should take steps to manage your risk. We’ve got courses at CAPEX Academy that take you through risk and money management and how to mitigate your exposure to risk in the global financial markets.
Buying US stocks and ETFs directly
Investing in stocks using a direct purchase carries its own risk because you are betting on one company rather than diversifying your exposure through an ETF or other fund.
You might invest in stocks by purchasing ETFs that track a group of companies, to benefit from the overall growth of an index or sector.
Leverage is not available for share and funds dealing, so you will have to pay the full value of it upfront.
Charges for investing vary depending on how you would like to take a position as in general is a small percentage of your investment value.
Depending on the account type, trades can have 0 commissions.
Trading US stocks, ETFs, and Indices through CFDs
Your risks when trading stocks are higher than share dealing due to the use of leverage – which can increase your losses as well as your profits.
Attaching stops to your positions can help to mitigate your exposure to risk.
Trading also allows speculating on the price movements of an index – which is a collection of many different companies’ shares, giving you exposure to an entire sector or economy at once.
CFDs have a in general a small commission fee when you open and close a position.
4. Understand what drives the US markets
The main factors that determine whether US markets move up or down are supply and demand. Essentially, if more people want to buy a share than sell it, the price will rise because the share is more sought-after (the 'demand' outstrips the 'supply'). On the other hand, if supply is greater than demand, then the price will fall.
Supply and demand affect the appeal – and, ultimately, the price – of shares, indices, and funds. While it might appear that there are other factors at play, such as the health of the economy and company earnings, these are just drivers of supply and demand.
This means, even if you think a US stock is over or undervalued, the market decides what it’s worth. It’s all about the dynamic between buyers and sellers.
If more buyers move into the market, the demand grows and share prices go up – especially if there is a limited supply. If supply and demand are just about equal, the share price is likely to move around in a narrow range for a while, until one of the factors outweighs the other.
Unfortunately, there is no clear equation that tells us exactly how the US markets will behave. That said, investors can learn a few things about the forces that move a stock up or down. These forces fall into three categories: fundamental factors, technical factors, and market sentiment.
Fundamental Factors
In an efficient market, stock prices would be determined primarily by fundamentals, which, at the basic level, refer to a combination of two things:
- An earnings base, such as earnings per share (EPS)
- A valuation multiple, such as a P/E ratio
An owner of common US stock has a claim on earnings, and earnings per share (EPS) is the owner's return on their investment. When you buy a stock, you are purchasing a proportional share of an entire future stream of earnings. That's the reason for the valuation multiple: It is the price you are willing to pay for the future stream of earnings.
Technical Factors
Things would be easier if only fundamental factors set stock prices. Technical factors are the mix of external conditions that alter the supply of and demand for a company's stock. Some of these indirectly affect fundamentals. For example, economic growth indirectly contributes to earnings growth.
Technical factors include the following.
Inflation
Inflation is a huge driver from a technical perspective as well. Historically, low inflation has had a strong inverse correlation with valuations (low inflation drives high multiples and high inflation drives low multiples). Deflation, on the other hand, is generally bad for stocks because it signifies a loss in pricing power for companies.
Interest rates
If interest rates are low, the stock market might see increased activity – despite the previous factors mentioned here. That’s because more people could turn to stocks and shares to achieve greater returns than they might otherwise be able to if they saved their money in a bank account.
Macroeconomic indicators
The state of the economy a company operates in will affect its growth. Data releases such as gross domestic product (GDP), employment reports (NFP), and retail sales can have a significant influence on company share prices – strong data can cause them to rise, while weak data can cause them to fall.
Market Sentiment
Market sentiment represents the mood of financial markets and the general feeling among traders, whether they trade foreign exchange, the stock market, or anything else. Understanding sentiment allows you to judge whether a market is feeling optimistic or pessimistic about the future prices of a security, such as a stock or currency, for example.
If the market is feeling positive and optimistic about the outlook then this is referred to as bull market, and a pessimistic market that expects prices to fall is referred to as a bear market.
Gauging market sentiment, however, is tricky. Attitudes and the outlook of a market are both shaped by anything and everything, therefore investors need to spread a wide net to ensure they are informed as much as possible about the ever-evolving market they trade.
5. Research and select your favorite assets
Stock investing is filled with intricate strategies and approaches, yet some of the most successful investors have done little more than stick with the basics. That means using funds for the bulk of your portfolio — Warren Buffett has famously said a low-cost S&P500 ETF is the best investment most people can make — and choosing individual stocks only if you believe in the company’s potential for long-term growth.
If individual stocks appeal to you, learning to research and study stocks is worth your time.
When you’re choosing US stocks, it’s important that you carry out your own due diligence on a company, sector, and economy. You should use both fundamental and technical analysis when assessing a company’s financials and potential future share price performance.
How to research US stocks
The first step in building the story is to gather data. When researching US stocks, the term “fundamentals” refers to data on a company’s financial performance. This includes things like revenue, profitability, assets and liabilities, and growth potential. Fundamental analysis helps you understand the financial health of a stock.
Understand the Numbers
Once you’ve gathered the research on your stock, you can dig into the stock’s financials. A company’s financial health has everything to do with how analysts rate its stock and should play a role in any decisions you need to make about adding the stock to your portfolio.
Here are the key financial criteria you’re going to be looking for:
- P/E Ratio (price-to-earnings ratio). Also known as a stock’s earnings multiple or price multiples, or, the P/E ratio is a number that measures a company’s current stock price (P) against its earnings per share (E). A P/E ratio is either forward-looking (uses estimated earnings) or backward-looking (earnings that already occurred).
- PEG Ratio (price-to-earnings-growth ratio). While it sounds like a mouthful, a company’s PEG ratio expresses a company’s P/E ratio divided by its annual earnings per share growth.
- P/B Ratio (price-to-book ratio). This ratio shows the relationship of a stock’s current price to the book value of the company. The book value is what a company could expect to get if it shut down tomorrow (yikes) and sold off all its assets.
- Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE). ROA is how efficiently a company uses its assets to create revenue. ROE is all about how much profit a company creates for every dollar that shareholders invest.
These figures help you make comparisons between different companies, or between a company and a basket of similar companies. They give you a sense of how expensive a particular stock is trading compared to its peers, and how much it might grow.
Learn About The Company
After getting the numbers down, continue to research a stock by learning about the leaders who run the company. Even if you’re a fan of the folks who make your laptop or your favorite sneakers, there’s more about a company that impacts whether a stock should be an addition to your portfolio.
- Leadership. Who is leading the company? What’s their management philosophy? Where did they work prior to running this company and how did they help their previous company succeed?
- Culture. How does the company rank on best places to work lists and additional lists that speak to equity, diversity, and inclusion like the Corporate Equality Index.
- Trends. Does the company have a strategy to remain competitive? Does it have business in multiple verticals and profit centers? And speaking to recent events, if the world shuts down because of a global pandemic, does the company still have ways to serve its customers and generate revenue? Much of this information can be found in the analyst's notes you’ve compiled.
With this sizable amount of information about a stock, you can start to assess whether it’s a fit for your investing goals.
How to research US funds
Before you start investing in US funds, it's important to know what you want your money to do for you. If you're looking to make a mint in a few years and are willing to willing to take a lot of risk, you may be more interested in individual stocks or even commodities.
But if you're looking to let your money grow slowly over time, particularly if you're saving for retirement, ETFs may be a great investment for your portfolio.
Once you know what index, sector, or US market you want to track, it's time to look at the actual ETFs you'll be investing in. When you're investigating, it's important to consider several different factors. Here are some things to keep in mind:
- Company size and capitalization. ETFs can track small, medium-sized or large companies (also known as small-, mid- or large-cap indexes).
- Geography. There are funds that focus on stocks that trade on foreign exchanges or a combination of international exchanges.
- Business sector or industry. You can explore funds that focus on consumer goods, technology, and health-related businesses.
- Asset type. There are funds that track domestic and foreign bonds, commodities, cash.
- Market opportunities. These funds examine emerging markets or other nascent but growing sectors for investment.
Despite the array of choices, you may need to invest in only one. Investing legend Warren Buffett has said that the average investor needs only invest in a broad US stock market index to be properly diversified. However, you can easily customize your allocation if you want additional exposure to specific markets in your portfolio (such as more emerging market exposure, or a higher allocation to small companies or bonds).
What are the US stock market trading hours?
When does the stock market open? Stock market opening times are the hours that stock exchanges are open for business and reflect an exchange’s geographic location.
Regular trading hours for the U.S. stock market, including the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Nasdaq Stock Market (Nasdaq), are 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., except for stock market holidays. (All times Eastern unless otherwise indicated.) On early-closure days, typically right before or right after a market holiday, regular stock trading ends at 1 p.m.
As for the weekends: There are no regular trading hours for stocks on Saturdays or Sundays. However, if you read a headline on a Sunday night saying that stock futures are down, that's because most futures contracts (Including equity futures, but also commodities such as oil and agricultural products and other investments) begin trading Sunday night on the exchanges.
What are the best-performing US stocks?
These are the best-performing US stocks over the last 30 years. The existence of such big returns makes it look easy to have achieved this, but having a trading edge is required to capture above-average returns. All listings are US-based stocks and the data is taken from Yahoo Finance.
1. Monster Beverage Corp. (ticker: MNST)
- Cumulative Total Return: 260,061%
- Average Annual Total Return: 34.6%
Monster Beverage has been an under-the-radar home run investment since its August 1995 initial public offering. In 27 years, Monster is one of the best-performing US stocks of the past three decades. In 2015, Monster struck a deal with Coca-Cola Co. (KO) in which Coca-Cola took a 19% ownership stake in Monster in return for Coca-Cola becoming Monster’s primary global distributor. A $1,000 stake in MNST stock in 1995 would now be worth more than $2,6 million.
2. Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN)
- Cumulative Total Return: 199,332%
- Average Annual Total Return: 28.835%
Perhaps the least surprising stock on this list is e-commerce and cloud services leader Amazon. Amazon stock went public in May 1997. Since that time, the company and its stock have gone on a historic run. Over the years, Amazon has pivoted from a niche online bookstore to a $1.6 trillion online marketplace juggernaut. $1,000 invested in AMZN stock in 1997 would now be worth $2 million.
3. Pool Corp. (POOL)
- Cumulative Total Return: 69,752%
- Average Annual Total Return: 28.2%
Pool is the world's largest wholesale distributor of swimming pool supplies and equipment, as well as related outdoor living and irrigation products. Unlike other stocks that have slowed down in recent years, POOL has stayed hot. In the past five years, POOL has generated a total return of 207.9%, nearly three times the 71.7% total return of the S&P 500 during that stretch. A $1,000 investment in POOL stock back in 1993 would now be worth $0.7 million.
4. Nvidia Corp. (NVDA)
- Cumulative Total Return: 67,231%
- Average Annual Total Return: 32.6%
Nvidia is a semiconductor stock that produces high-end graphics processors for personal computers, smartphones, and other applications. Nvidia first went public back in January 1999. Despite cyclical ups and downs in the semiconductor industry in recent years, Nvidia's revenue growth is still going strong. A $10,000 investment in NVDA stock back in 1999 would now be worth $6.7 million.
5. NVR Inc. (NVR)
- Cumulative Total Return: 52,515%
- Average Annual Total Return: 23.2%
NVR is one of the largest U.S. homebuilders. It constructs and sells condominiums, townhouses, and single-family and luxury homes under three brands: Ryan Homes, NVHomes, and Heartland Homes. NVR went public back in November 1993. $1,000 invested in NVR stock 29 years ago would now be worth $0.52 million.
6. Altria Group Inc. (MO)
- Cumulative Total Return: 46,463%
- Average Annual Total Return: 22.7%
Global tobacco giant Altria may be a surprise top market performer of the past 30 years. Altria first went public back in July 1985. Despite major public relations and regulatory pressures on the tobacco industry in recent years, Altria still pays a sizable 8.5% dividend.
7. Netflix Inc. (NFLX)
- Cumulative Total Return: 39,581%
- Average Annual Total Return: 35.4%
Shares of streaming video giant Netflix have taken a big hit in 2022, but there's no question Netflix has been one of the best growth stocks in the market since its May 2002 IPO. When Netflix went public, it was sending DVDs to its customers through the mail. Today, Netflix has about 222 million paying households on its subscriber list and is one of the world's largest media companies.
8. Apple Inc. (AAPL)
- Cumulative Total Return: 36,830%
- Average Annual Total Return: 21.8%
Like Amazon, iPhone maker Apple is certainly no surprise on the list of top-performing stocks. Apple has been one of the most innovative technology companies of all time, and its transition from hardware sales to services revenue in recent years demonstrates the company's ongoing commitment to adaptivity. Apple went public back in December 1980.
9. Microchip Technology Inc. (MCHP)
- Cumulative Total Return: 260,061% %
- Average Annual Total Return: 22.7%
Microchip Technology produces microcontrollers, analog semiconductors and other semiconductor products. Microchip was founded way back in 1987 and went public in March 1993. The stock's outperformance is certainly no surprise given how semiconductor demand has boomed in Microchip's end markets, such as data centers and the aerospace and defense industry. In the past 30 years, Microchip's shares have generated
*Please remember that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
What are the highest-priced US Stocks?
Some of the most sought-after stocks are those that come with a hefty price tag and many of us equate value with price. The higher the price, the more valuable and, therefore, the more desirable a company becomes. The average investor may not be able to afford a single share of stock from the following companies.
Retail investors need to know which stocks may be difficult to trade because of their high per-share price. It's also worth noting that not all brokers offer their clients the option to purchase fractional shares.
1. Berkshire Hathaway
- Stock price: $421,800.00
- Market capitalization: $619.9 billion
Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) has the highest-priced shares of any U.S. company and is also one of the largest companies in the world, consistently ranking in the top 10 by market value.
2. NVR
- Stock price: $4,370.80
- Market capitalization: $14.38 billion
NVR (NVR) is a homebuilding and mortgage banking company based in Virginia. The company reaches consumers in 34 cities in 14 states, including Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Florida, Delaware, West Virginia, and New Jersey, as well as D.C.
3. Seaboard
- Stock price: $3,750.01
- Market capitalization: $4.35 billion
Seaboard (SEB) is a multinational corporation that deals in grains and agricultural products, including pork, sugar, and alcohol. The company also deals in commodity trading and milling.
4. Alphabet
- Stock Price: $2,403.37
- Market Capitalization: $1.58 trillion
Alphabet (GOOG) was founded in 1998 as the search engine company, Google, and became the world's most popular search engine. After a reorganization in 2015, it changed its name to Alphabet and created a brand-new holding company.
5. AutoZone
- Stock Price: $2,182.37
- Market capitalization: $42.53 billion
AutoZone Inc. (AZO) retails and distributes automotive replacement parts and accessories. The company provides a sales program that offers commercial credit and delivery of parts and other products and sells automotive diagnostic and repair software under the ALLDATA brand.
What are the biggest US stocks?
These are the biggest companies listed on public stock exchanges globally and the countries they are listed. As of the end of Q4 2022, market capitalization prices are in USD. This is a snapshot that is subject to change.
- Apple (AAPL): $2.45 T
- Microsoft (MSFT): $1.79 T
- Alphabet (GOOG): $1.306 T
- Amazon (AMZN): $1.195 T
- Tesla (TSLA): $997.90 B
- Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B): $592.07 B
- UnitedHealth (UNH): $482.02 B
- Johnson & Johnson (JNJ): $436.91 B
- Visa (V): $391.53 B
- Meta Platforms (META): $383.83 B
- Exxon Mobil (XOM): $377.46 B
- Walmart (WMT): $362.05 B
- JPMorgan Chase (JPM): $326.13 B
- Procter & Gamble (PG): $324.92 B
- NVIDIA (NVDA): $313.02 B
- Chevron (CVX): $303.18 B
- Eli Lilly (LLY): $295.38 B
- Mastercard (MA): $288.32 B
- Home Depot (HD): $275.52 B
- Bank of America (BAC): $261.14 B
- Coca-Cola (KO): $256.27 B
- AbbVie (ABBV): $252.85 B
- Pfizer (PFE): $250.14 B
- Pepsico (PEP): $232.68 B
- Merck (MRK): $221.68 B
