Barron's Picks And Pans: Blackstone, Norwegian Cruise, Chipotle And More

• This weekend's Barron's asks how one alternative-asset manager stacks up against its peers.
• Other featured articles tale a look at the prospects for a cruise line operator on the rise and a beverage can maker that has been crushed.
• The outlooks for a hospital REIT facing a setback and an a restructuring fast-casual restaurant chain operator are also examined.

"Blackstone Units Have 40% Upside, and 8% Yield" by Jack Hough points out that alternative-asset manager Blackstone Group LP BX has been raking in far more money than its peers. See why Barron's believes more fundraising and an increase in distributable earnings could help its units rally, and also that its cash distributions could soon grow too large to ignore.

In "Norwegian Cruise Line Stock Could Rise 20%," Lawrence C. Strauss makes a case why investors in Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd NCLH shouldn't give up the ship just yet. Its shares should sail ahead, says the article, aided by a growing fleet and cruising's expanding popularity at home and abroad as more and more baby boomers retire. Plus Cuba looks promising.

Reshma Kapadia's "Ball Corp: The Can-Do Can Maker" takes a look at Ball Corporation BLL, the world's largest aluminum-can maker. Though its shares have been crushed over the past six months, could they still rise 25 percent, despite concerns about the company's ability to integrate a recent acquisition, as conditions in emerging markets improve?

See also: How The Ultra-Wealthy Are Helping Advance Health And Life Sciences

Woes of a major tenant have bruised this hospital real estate investment trust, according to "Medical Properties Trust Gets a Good Diagnosis" by Andrew Bary. But it can easily recover by finding other tenants for its properties or selling them outright if necessary, and the stock looks cheap. Plus Medical Properties Trust, Inc. MPW yields a juicy 7.6 percent.

In Maxim analyst Stephen Anderson's "Chipotle Refocuses, Chops ShopHouse," see why Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. CMG could also make strategic reviews of the Tasty Made burger concept and Pizzeria Locale, in the wake of its announcement that it will close its 15-unit ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen chain. Is the worst over for Chipotle?

Also in this week's Barron's:

• Roundtable panelists discuss the future of ETFs
• Airbus CEO's plan for growth
• How to beat the wealth-effect trap
• Whether the Federal Reserve is using overheated data
• Whether oil's slide signals weakening growth
• How Snap Inc SNAP is like GoPro Inc GPRO
• Why online brokers may cut services
• Whether Chinese growth will snap back to 10 percent
• The lack of dividend safety among retailers

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