Oak Thistle LLC Buys New Position in The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG)

Oak Thistle LLC purchased a new position in The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 7,361 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $372,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Ariel Investments LLC raised its position in The Carlyle Group by 1.1% during the second quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 4,937,725 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $198,250,000 after purchasing an additional 54,805 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of The Carlyle Group by 72.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,051,757 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $174,469,000 after buying an additional 1,707,520 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in The Carlyle Group by 6.5% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,266,595 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $90,999,000 after buying an additional 137,541 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in The Carlyle Group by 22.8% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,107,301 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $90,740,000 after acquiring an additional 391,553 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of The Carlyle Group by 68.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,919,439 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $82,651,000 after acquiring an additional 777,304 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.88% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at The Carlyle Group

In related news, Director Daniel A. D’aniello sold 495,542 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.53, for a total transaction of $25,535,279.26. Following the sale, the director now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 27.20% of the company’s stock.

The Carlyle Group Stock Performance

The Carlyle Group stock opened at $54.27 on Friday. The Carlyle Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.65 and a fifty-two week high of $55.11. The stock has a market cap of $19.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 187.14, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.69. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $51.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $46.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 2.32 and a current ratio of 2.32.

The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.08. The Carlyle Group had a return on equity of 24.91% and a net margin of 2.21%. The company had revenue of $895.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $908.17 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.87 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that The Carlyle Group Inc. will post 3.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The Carlyle Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th were issued a $0.35 dividend. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 18th. The Carlyle Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 482.76%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CG has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of The Carlyle Group in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. UBS Group boosted their target price on The Carlyle Group from $43.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on The Carlyle Group from $46.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on 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. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $54.44.

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.