With the potential for continued economic and political volatility, now is probably a good time for a little spring cleaning to portfolios. Here are six new additions to the Jefferies Franchise Picks…
Monday's top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Amazon.com, American Airlines, American Express, Beyond Meat, Caterpillar, Clorox, eBay, Gilead Sciences, Twitter, Verizon Communications and Wayfair.
Asset manager Blackstone Group reported earnings Thursday morning that were slightly below the consensus estimate. The company also reported a strong cash position as it navigates the COVID-19 outbreak.
Paul Ausick Banks that supplied cash for two major casino deals have now found a buyer for their loans. The Federal Reserve has stepped up Monday.
MGM Resorts is selling its MGM Grand Las Vegas real estate assets to a new joint venture between MGM's own real estate arm and an affiliate of Blackstone for around $2.5 billion.
Thursday's top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations included Applied Materials, Barrick Gold, Best Buy, Blackstone, Boeing, Cisco Systems, Johnson & Johnson, KKR, McDonald's, Micron Technology, Occidental Petroleum, RealReal and Splunk.
Energy pipeline operator Tallgrass Energy Partners has agreed to be acquired by affiliates of Blackstone for about $4 billion in cash.
Blackstone is looking to get out there after acquiring a majority stake in MagicLab, which runs the online dating apps Bumble and Badoo.
Friday's top analyst upgrades, downgrades and other rating changes included Amazon.com, Avis, Blackstone, Illumina, Intel, Kinder Morgan, 3M, Nvidia, Tesla, Twitter, Uber Technologies and Visa.
Casino owner/operator MGM Resorts has shed two of its Las Vegas properties for about $5 billion. More asset sales could follow.
Monday's top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations included Arconic, Beyond Meat, Blackstone, Bloom Energy, Datadog, Delta Air Lines, Netflix, Ping and Xilinx.
Tuesday's top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations included Analog Devices, Blackstone, Bloom Energy, Cleveland-Cliffs, Ford, Micron Technology, PG&E, Snap and VMWare.
Private equity giant Blackstone announced Monday that it is acquiring the light warehouse assets of Colony Capital for $5.9 billion. This is Blackstone's second major warehouse acquisition this year.
Paul Ausick Tuesday's top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations included Apple, Blackstone, CBS, Global Payments, Netflix, Ralph Lauren, Walt Disney and Wynn Resorts.
The top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations for Monday included Apple, Caterpillar, Costco, Chipotle Mexican Grill, eBay, Groupon, Honeywell, Mastercard, Newmont Goldcorp, Roku and Zoetis.
