Brokerages Set The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG) Target Price at $54.38

Shares of The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG) have received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the sixteen research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and seven have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $54.44.

Several brokerages recently weighed in on CG. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of The Carlyle Group from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of The Carlyle Group from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of The Carlyle Group from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on The Carlyle Group from $59.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday.

The Carlyle Group Stock Performance

CG stock opened at $53.90 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $51.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $46.68. The Carlyle Group has a fifty-two week low of $36.65 and a fifty-two week high of $55.11. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $19.28 billion, a PE ratio of 185.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.69.

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

The Carlyle Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 25th. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th were issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.60%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 18th. The Carlyle Group’s payout ratio is 482.76%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Daniel A. D’aniello sold 495,542 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.53, for a total value of $25,535,279.26. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 32,504,102 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,674,936,376.06. This represents a 1.50 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 27.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of The Carlyle Group

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CG. TD Asset Management Inc raised its stake in The Carlyle Group by 0.5% in the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 152,089 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,106,000 after buying an additional 683 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in The Carlyle Group by 8.7% during the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 48,374 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,942,000 after purchasing an additional 3,883 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC boosted its position in The Carlyle Group by 186.2% during the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 13,551 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $544,000 after purchasing an additional 8,817 shares during the period. Choreo LLC acquired a new position in shares of The Carlyle Group in the second quarter valued at $291,000. Finally, United Services Automobile Association lifted its stake in shares of The Carlyle Group by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. United Services Automobile Association now owns 16,826 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $676,000 after buying an additional 474 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.88% of the company’s stock.

About The Carlyle Group

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.