Argus analyst Stephen Biggar raised his price target on Blackstone to $72 and kept his Buy rating after its Q4 earnings beat, saying the company also benefited from a "more favorable environment" for realization while its fee-based earnings also continued to expand. The analyst adds that the company's conversion from a partnership to a corporation will also support Blackstone shares by allowing the stock to be included in a wider range of indices.

Catch up on the weekend's top five stories with this list compiled by The Fly: 1. NCR Corp. (NCR) is nearing a deal to buy Cardtronics (CATM) for $39 per share or around $1.7B, Cara Lombardo and Miriam Gottfried of Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Cardtronics closed Friday down 41c to $40.86. NCR outbid Apollo Global Management (APO) and Hudson Executive Capital LP, who declined to raise their prior offer of $35 per share, according to Lombardo and Gottfried. The private equity firms opted to walk away and receive a breakup fee of more than $30M as the merger agreement stipulates, sources told the Journal. 2. A blank-check acquisition company backed by veteran investor Bill Foley is nearing an agreement to take Alight Solutions, the U.S. benefits services provider owned by Blackstone (BX), public at a valuation of $7.3B including debt, Reuters' David French reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The transaction calls for Alight to merge with special purpose acquisition company Foley Trasimene Acquisition Corp (BFT), and could be announced as soon as Monday, said the sources. 3. The Netflix (NFLX) story fundamentally changed this past week, with the surprising news that the company now plans to break even on a free-cash-flow basis this year, Eric Savitz wrote in this week's edition of Barron's. With more than 203 million subscribers paying on average $11 a month, Netflix now generates enough cash to cover its production costs. As the subscriber base continues to expand, the level of cash generation should grow, the author contended. 4. One of President Joe Biden's top economic aides on Sunday will press Democratic and Republican senators for a fresh $1.9T in coronavirus relief to help struggling Americans and avert a larger economic crisis, Reuters' Andrea Shalal and Susan Cornwell reported. Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, said he would speak to the senators as part of a push by the Biden administration to make the case for a large rescue plan, the authors noted. 5. Crown Castle (CCI), SBA Communications (SBAC), CoreSite Realty (COR), Equinix (EQIX) and LKQ Corp. (LKQ) saw positive mentions in this week's edition of Barron's.