CSL Limited (ASX: CSL) is the second Australian company to surpass $100 per share in 2015, following on from Blackmores Limited (ASX: BKL) which achieved that milestone in August this year.
CSL's share price hit a high of $100.04 before retreating to $99.89 while Blackmores' share price is now sitting at $185.77 after hitting the prized $200 mark late in October.
Indeed, CSL has been one of the S&P/ASX 200's (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) top performing blue chips over the last 12 months. Its shares have risen 25.3% in that time, compared to the market's 3.3% decline, while the share price has also gained 185% over the last five years.
Although a $100 share price might look pricey compared to companies like Woolworths Limited (ASX: WOW) or BHP Billiton Limited (ASX: BHP), which are trading at around $24 and $19 respectively, the shares aren't necessarily expensive.
In fact, had it not been for a three-for-one share split in 2007, we could be looking at a share price closer to $300 right now.
On a per share basis however, CSL could actually still represent decent value. It reported US$2.92 (AU$4.04, based on today's currency exchange rate of US 72.42 cents) in earnings recently, representing a multiple of 24.7x last year's earnings. For a company with a market value of nearly $46 billion, that's not cheap per se, but it does seem like a reasonable price to pay for such a high-quality company.
