Facebook Inc. has just crossed Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in terms of market capitalization. The social network giant added roughly $5 billion to its market cap and momentarily touched a valuation of nearly $362 billion after posting strong financial results for the second quarter.
The company finished trading on Thursday with a market value of $363.8 billion, surpassing Berkshire’s Class B shares that ended the day with a valuation of $355.7 billion, according to data compiled by FactSet.
This is a huge achievement for a tech company that was established only twelve years ago and has been public for a mere 4 years. On the other hand, Warren Buffett—regarded as one of the savviest investors in the World—has been running Berkshire for more than 50 years.
Facebook shares hit an all-time high of $128.33 on Thursday. The Menlo Park, Calif. company has been dominating the tech world for the past two years and it has manages to catapult its tech competitors. Some of the big names in the tech industry are struggling, for instance Apple Inc. has been wrestling with slowing iPhone sales that has increased fears among few investors about the growth of the iPhone maker, though the Cupertino, Calif. company got a recent boost from its quarterly profit this week.
FB shares have jumped about 20 percent so far this year, as compared to a gain of around 9.4 percent year-to-date for Berkshire stock. Surpassing Berkshire makes the social network giant the fifth biggest company in the United States in terms of market capitalization, just behind Exxon Mobil Corp that has a value of around $374 billion. Apple leads the list with a value of $562 billion, while Google parent Alphabet Inc. is on second place with a market cap of $519 billion, followed by Microsoft Corp. with a value of around $439 billion, according to data compiled by FactSet.
