Diamonds and Dogs

7/18/18

Warren Buffett changing his tune. Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) is jumping 5% after billionaire chairman, Warren Buffett has changed his mind and will now allocate capital to stock repurchases when he believes the price is below Berkshire's "intrinsic value." The financial conglomerate has not done so since 2012.Berkshire's old buyback policy prohibited buybacks when the stock price exceeded 1.2 times book value per share, or assets minus liabilities. The Omaha, Nebraska-based company's stock had been trading at closer to a 1.4 times multiple. Berkshire's cash and equivalents, which totaled $108.6 billion 03 20% of their market cap.

Another CEO stepped down. Texas Instruments (TXN) is modestly lower as CEO Brian Crutcher has resigned after what the company described as violations "related to personal behavior that is not consistent with our ethics and core values." Crutcher, who worked at Texas Instruments for 22 years, had been serving as CEO for just six weeks, but has been with the firm for 22 years. A number of CEO have stepped down recently including the CEOs at Intel, Barnes & Noble, Athenahealth, Wynn Resorts and many others.