Photo: ReutersSynchrony Financial is the latest company to receive a ringing endorsement from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. What’s the takeaway for the rest of us? The $24 billion issuer of private-label and other credit cards saw its stock surge more than 6% in after-hours trading on Monday after a Berkshire filing revealed that the conglomerate is now a top 10 shareholder, with a stake of roughly 2.2%. Nobody in Omaha must be losing sleep about worsening trends in consumer credit, which my colleague Lisa Abramowicz has rightly noted could lead to losses but is unlikely to cause a 2008-style meltdown. And if the fate of consumer credit isn’t a concern, then there’s a lot to like about Synchrony. Before Berkshire’s stake revelation, Synchrony traded at a forward price to earnings multiple of roughly 9.2, a discount to the industry’s average of 10.5.

Source: Mint August 15, 2017 07:52 UTC