Posted May 13th 2009 12:30PM by Tom Taulli
Filed under: Private equity, Blackstone Group L.P (BX)
In the middle of 2007, the private equity industry started to crumble as the credit crunch shocked the U.S. financial system. Since then, it's been particularly tough for dealmakers.
Yet, according to a cover story in BusinessWeek, the good days may be here again. In fact, private equity may even help the economy get out of its funk.
And, there is historical precedent. Back in the early 1990s, private equity funds were a key source of restructuring and capital infusions. Interestingly enough, some of the players included the Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX), Carlyle and Apollo (yes, these are now some of the largest funds in the world).
But there's a big difference: Private equity funds now have about $1 trillion in capital to put to work.
Continue reading Will private equity save the world?
Posted May 9th 2009 12:40PM by Trey Thoelcke
Filed under: Earnings reports, Cisco Systems (CSCO), Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI), Hansen Natural (HANS), Walt Disney (DIS), American Express (AXP), News Corp'B' (NWS), Alcatel-LucentADS (ALU), Tyson Foods'A' (TSN), Symantec Corp (SYMC), Las Vegas Sands (LVS), Vonage Holdings (VG), Blackstone Group L.P (BX), Garmin Ltd (GRMN), Marvel Entertainment (MVL)
Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:
Continue reading Earnings highlights: Disney, Cisco, News Corp., Marvel, Sirius, Blackstone and more
Posted May 7th 2009 2:00PM by Tom Taulli
Filed under: Private equity, Blackstone Group L.P (BX)
When the Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) reported its Q4 results, the company's CEO, Stephen Schwarzman, said that the stock price was "dimwitted." Well, since then, the stock price has surged from $4.87 to $13.44
What happened? Perhaps it's the fact that the financial system has stabilized.
But, if you take a look at the Q1 results (announced yesterday) for Blackstone, things still look ugly. In fact, on the conference call, President Tony James gave a particularly negative view on the economy. For the most part, it looks like it will take a long while to get things back on track.
Continue reading Blackstone's stock is 'dimwitted' no more
Posted Apr 2nd 2009 11:10AM by Eric Buscemi
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Amazon.com (AMZN), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), AutoZone Inc (AZO), Black and Decker (BDK), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Analyst initiations, Blackstone Group L.P (BX)
Analyst upgrades:
- Citigroup upgraded Abbott Lab (NYSE: ABT) to Hold from Sell on valuation following the stock's recent underperformance. The firm maintains a $48 price target.
- Deutsche Bank upgraded shares of Pepsi Bottling (NYSE: PBG) and Dr. Pepper Snapple (NYSE: DPS) to Buy from Hold as they believe carbonated soft drinks market is showing signs of stabilization. The firm raised its price target on Pepsi Bottling to $28 from $25 and on Dr. Pepper Snapple to $22 from $20.
- Baird upgraded CommScope (NYSE: CTV) to Outperform from Neutral and raised their target to $19 from $10 as they expect fundamentals to bottom in Q1 and ramp strongly in Q2 as wireless capex outlook improves.
- Sinopec Shanghai (NYSE: SHI) was raised to Buy from Sell at Goldman.
- TRW Automotive (NYSE: TRW) was upgraded at JP Morgan to Neutral from Underweight.
Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: ABT, DPS, BDK, AMZN, GS ...
Posted Mar 2nd 2009 10:00AM by Timothy Sykes
Filed under: Forecasts, Good news, General Electric (GE), Wal-Mart (WMT), Coca-Cola (KO), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), Newsletters, Citigroup Inc. (C), Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), American Express (AXP), Bank of America (BAC), Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), ConocoPhillips (COP), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Procter and Gamble (PG), Blackstone Group L.P (BX), Financial Crisis

It's been exactly one year since the last time Warren Buffett showed off his incredible investment mind in his annual letter to
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:
BRK.A) shareholders and
I dissected it for its greatest lessons.
You can read this year's entire 97-page
annual report (pdf), or the shorter 23-page
letter to shareholders (pdf), or just learn from what I think are some of this year's most important points:
1. While, as has been widely reported, this was Berkshire's worst year, we're only talking a 9.6% drop in book value, which hugely outperformed not only the S&P 500, but just about everyone else with multi-billion dollar businesses, let alone any insurance or investment businesses. Compare to
Marsh & McLennan Companies (NYSE:
MMC),
Blackstone Group (NYSE:
BX),
Aon Corp (NYSE:
AOC) and
Willis Group (NYSE:
WSH), all of which were hit far worse.
Continue reading Seven things investors can learn from Warren Buffett's annual report
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