Google parent company Alphabet Inc. joined rarefied company Monday when it for the first time reached a $1,000 share price.
Shares of the tech company were up $7.55, or 0.76 percent, to $1,003.67 around midday.
By reaching the milestone, Alphabet joined e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc., whose shares sold for $1,000 for the first time last week. Others in the elite group include home builder NVR Inc., pork producer and ocean transportation company Seaboard Corp., and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Rising stock prices benefit companies, but when shares get too costly they may be affordable only to big institutional investors rather than individual investors.
Reaching the $1,000 mark is a memorable moment but also an arbitrary measurement with no real significance, said Michael Pachter, research analyst at Wedbush Securities. Several other companies, including Apple Inc., likely would have reached this point already had they not split their stock, he said.
"It's really not a big deal," Pachter said of the $1,000 share price, other than that investors are "fascinated."
