Congrats! Another win to the "trading huddle" (allegedly) - while the last few posts have been about stocks going up for reasons they did in the old days, today's upgrade of Blackstone Group (
BX) is more likely a representation of the new "financially innovative" and "fair and balanced" stock market. I just got lucky I added to the position yesterday, but generally "luck" has nothing to do with these things of late.
If you are unfamiliar with the Goldman Sachs (
GS) trading huddle please see this post (
Aug 27, 2009: Goldman Sachs Trading Huddle) - now before I get into conjecture let's see what Goldman
sprung on us today.
- Goldman Sachs added Blackstone Group (BX) to its "Americas conviction buy list," and raised its price target on the asset manager's stock, citing a better M&A cycle and an improving lending and investing environment.
- Analysts at Goldman view Blackstone as capable of seizing M&A and restructuring opportunities via a growing advisory business, and see robust earnings possibilities in its distressed funds and fund-of-funds businesses, which they feel are taking market share and driving assets under management (AuM) levels higher.
- Goldman expects Blackstone's advisory business to account for about 35 percent of revenue in 2009. "Blackstone benefits from improving capital market trends... with ample dry powder to deploy," the brokerage said, and raised its price target on the company's stock to $18 from $16.
Sounds great, and I appreciate the 5% move today, Goldman Sachs. But let's wonder outloud how much better we could of done if we were one of the Goldman Sachs top clients.
*************************
Based on the Wall Street Journal story, there is basically a 1 week lag between when Goldman gets its "top clients" into a stock, along with a very special trader who attends the trading huddles - he/she is called a franchise risk manager.
