Wells Fargo & Company Begins Coverage on The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG)

Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on shares of The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) in a research report sent to investors on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm issued an equal weight rating and a $42.00 price target on the financial services provider’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Barclays lowered their price objective on The Carlyle Group from $51.00 to $46.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price target on shares of The Carlyle Group from $55.00 to $53.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of The Carlyle Group from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut The Carlyle Group from an overweight rating to a neutral rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $46.00 to $44.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic began coverage on The Carlyle Group in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. They set a buy rating and a $55.00 target price for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $45.81.

The Carlyle Group Stock Up 3.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CG opened at $40.05 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $14.27 billion, a P/E ratio of -22.37, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.73. The Carlyle Group has a 52-week low of $27.13 and a 52-week high of $50.92. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $41.86 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $43.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 2.55 and a current ratio of 2.55.

The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The financial services provider reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.83 by ($0.05). The Carlyle Group had a positive return on equity of 24.30% and a negative net margin of 11.67%. The firm had revenue of $1.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $808.73 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 131.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that The Carlyle Group will post 3.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The Carlyle Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th were paid a $0.35 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.50%. The Carlyle Group’s payout ratio is -78.21%.

Insider Activity at The Carlyle Group

In other The Carlyle Group news, major shareholder Carlyle Group Inc. sold 24,390 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.09, for a total transaction of $733,895.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 11,141,580 shares in the company, valued at approximately $335,250,142.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold 1,969,673 shares of company stock worth $71,897,412 in the last 90 days. 27.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On The Carlyle Group

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of The Carlyle Group by 7.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,876,188 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,012,212,000 after acquiring an additional 1,756,189 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its stake in The Carlyle Group by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 20,053,012 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $940,687,000 after purchasing an additional 79,681 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of The Carlyle Group by 6.5% in the first quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 11,819,403 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $554,448,000 after buying an additional 721,608 shares during the last quarter. Ariel Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 54,805 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of The Carlyle Group in the 4th quarter valued at $130,771,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.