The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG) Short Interest Down 11.1% in December

The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG) was the target of a large decline in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 9,760,000 shares, a decline of 11.1% from the November 30th total of 10,980,000 shares. Approximately 4.0% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 2,470,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.0 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on The Carlyle Group from $46.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of The Carlyle Group from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of The Carlyle Group from $43.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of The Carlyle Group from $78.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $54.00.

Insider Transactions at The Carlyle Group

In other The Carlyle Group news, major shareholder Carlyle Group Inc. sold 924,466 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.14, for a total value of $1,978,357.24. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 3,643,231 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,796,514.34. This trade represents a 20.24 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Daniel A. D’aniello sold 495,542 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the director now owns 32,504,102 shares in the company, valued at $1,674,936,376.06. The trade was a 1.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,171,556 shares of company stock valued at $29,222,475 in the last three months. 27.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of The Carlyle Group

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of The Carlyle Group by 68.1% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,919,439 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $82,651,000 after buying an additional 777,304 shares during the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in The Carlyle Group by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 12,864 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $559,000 after purchasing an additional 495 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of The Carlyle Group by 145.6% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 28,210 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,215,000 after purchasing an additional 16,723 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of The Carlyle Group during the 3rd quarter worth about $212,000. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank raised its holdings in The Carlyle Group by 15.0% in the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 57,801 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,489,000 after acquiring an additional 7,533 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.88% of the company’s stock.

The Carlyle Group Stock Down 0.1 %

The Carlyle Group stock traded down $0.03 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $50.49. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 765,573 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,326,632. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $51.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $45.90. 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 12 month low of $36.65 and a 12 month high of $55.11. The company has a market capitalization of $18.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 174.10, 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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $895.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $908.17 million. The Carlyle Group had a return on equity of 24.91% and a net margin of 2.21%. The Carlyle Group’s revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.87 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that The Carlyle Group will post 3.77 earnings per share for the current year.

The Carlyle Group Dividend Announcement

The company 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 18th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.77%. The Carlyle Group’s payout ratio is 482.76%.

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.