The Carlyle Group Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:CG)

The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock traders bought 6,858 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 395% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,385 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on CG shares. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of The Carlyle Group from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $60.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on The Carlyle Group from $78.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of The Carlyle Group from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $60.00 target price on shares of The Carlyle Group in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of The Carlyle Group from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $54.44.

Insider Activity at The Carlyle Group

In other The Carlyle Group 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 32,504,102 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,674,936,376.06. This trade represents a 1.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 27.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of The Carlyle Group

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in The Carlyle Group during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Tobam grew its position in shares of The Carlyle Group by 32.8% during the third quarter. Tobam now owns 890 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 220 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of The Carlyle Group in the 4th quarter valued at $57,000. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt raised its position in The Carlyle Group by 1,600.0% in the 3rd quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 1,700 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $73,000 after purchasing an additional 1,600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in shares of The Carlyle Group by 147.9% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,909 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $77,000 after buying an additional 1,139 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.88% of the company’s stock.

The Carlyle Group Trading Up 0.7 %

NASDAQ:CG opened at $54.27 on Friday. 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 has a 1 year low of $36.65 and a 1 year high of $55.11. The stock has a market cap of $19.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 187.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.69. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $51.92 and a 200-day simple moving average of $46.73.

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

The Carlyle Group Announces Dividend

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

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.