What is the stock symbol for Swiss pharmacy company Roche?

Answer 1

Roche is a Swiss company that trades on the Swiss stock exchange. (not NASDAQ, NYSE etc) normally to buy the stock directly on that exchange you would need to go through a foreign broker, or a U.S. Broker with a special account.. and payable in Swiss francs.. typically a broker would require that you have about $50,000 to $100k in your account and the fees would be higher - that stock symbol is ROG.VX

to handle the small U.S. Investor Roche stock is traded as an ADR on the U.S. OTC (over the counter) market that anyone can buy.. there are two stock symbols for Roche RHHBY (the most common) and another one of RHHDY - check with a major broker for the differances or more info on ADR's

technically 4 ADR shares =1 actual share of Roche on the Swiss exchange.. in terms of cost, you will pay a normal broker fee for buying/selling a regular stock + ADR have additional fees for owning the shares... Annual fee is billed to your account yearly of 5 cents per share owned. Divident fee is typically 2 cents a share (it's just reduced from your divident payment) and finally since a bank runs the ADR They charge another 3 cents a share... you also have to take into account the currency exchange between Swiss francs & U.S. dollars.. a weaker dollar would bring higher returns.