The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) Lowered to “Sell” Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on CG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of The Carlyle Group from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of The Carlyle Group from $78.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of The Carlyle Group in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays upped their price objective on The Carlyle Group from $50.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of The Carlyle Group from $46.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $53.33.

The Carlyle Group Price Performance

NASDAQ:CG opened at $53.65 on Friday. The Carlyle Group has a one year low of $32.09 and a one year high of $54.52. The company has a market cap of $19.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 185.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.70. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $48.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $44.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 2.32 and a quick ratio of 2.32.

The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $895.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $908.17 million. The Carlyle Group had a net margin of 2.21% and a return on equity of 24.91%. The Carlyle Group’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.87 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that The Carlyle Group will post 3.77 earnings per share for the current year.

The Carlyle Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.61%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. The Carlyle Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 482.76%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Daniel A. D’aniello sold 495,542 shares of The Carlyle Group stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.53, for a total transaction of $25,535,279.26. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 32,504,102 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,674,936,376.06. This trade represents a 1.50 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Carlyle Group Inc. sold 92,905 shares of The Carlyle Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.27, for a total value of $210,894.35. Following the sale, the insider now owns 3,155,461 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,162,896.47. This trade represents a 2.86 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 2,171,556 shares of company stock valued at $29,222,475. 27.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of The Carlyle Group

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Westbourne Investment Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of The Carlyle Group by 3.6% during the third quarter. Westbourne Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 5,700 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $245,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of The Carlyle Group by 0.5% during the third quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 41,742 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,797,000 after acquiring an additional 208 shares in the last quarter. Tobam raised its holdings in The Carlyle Group by 32.8% in the third quarter. Tobam now owns 890 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 220 shares in the last quarter. Western Pacific Wealth Management LP raised its holdings in The Carlyle Group by 14.7% in the first quarter. Western Pacific Wealth Management LP now owns 2,447 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $115,000 after purchasing an additional 313 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its holdings in The Carlyle Group by 0.5% in the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 61,684 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,484,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 55.88% of the company’s stock.

The Carlyle Group Company Profile

The Carlyle Group Inc is an investment firm specializing in direct and fund of fund investments. Within direct investments, it specializes in management-led/ Leveraged buyouts, privatizations, divestitures, strategic minority equity investments, structured credit, global distressed and corporate opportunities, small and middle market, equity private placements, consolidations and buildups, senior debt, mezzanine and leveraged finance, and venture and growth capital financings, seed/startup, early venture, emerging growth, turnaround, mid venture, late venture, PIPES.