It’s official: Berkshire Hathaway is joining the S&P 500 index.  We’ve been expecting this move for a while, particularly since the announcement of the stock split as part of Berkshire’s pending purchase of Burlington Northern Santa Fe (see earlier article in TheStreet.com).

Berkshire has been the largest publicly traded company not included in the index due to the high price of the A and B shares, which limited the trading volume of Berkshire’s stock.  Volume has surged since the split and now meets the required level for index inclusion.  Berkshire will replace Burlington Northern in the S&P 500, and will also be added to the S&P 100, when the merger is completed during the first quarter.

We think this move is good news for shareholders.  Index funds managing trillions of dollars and other institutional investors managing their own indexed portfolios will add Berkshire to their holdings, and the number of shares that these funds will buy is likely to represent more than 20% of Berkshire’s total shares outstanding.  This investor base will hold the shares as long as Berkshire remains in the indexes, even after Warren Buffett is no longer at the helm.

Buffett has previously indicated that he would be pleased if the shares were included in the S&P 500, saying it’s a “plus for shareholders.”  As long-time owners of Berkshire shares, we also applaud this news.

Here is a link to a story of the announcement: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Berkshire-will-replace-BNSF-apf-840921060.html?x=0&.v=3