Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Trims Stock Holdings in The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC reduced its stake in The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG) by 69.6% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 72,065 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 165,220 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in The Carlyle Group were worth $2,893,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Private Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in The Carlyle Group during the fourth quarter worth about $241,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in The Carlyle Group by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,389,670 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $56,546,000 after buying an additional 61,782 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in The Carlyle Group by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 66,395 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,702,000 after buying an additional 3,758 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in The Carlyle Group by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,368,100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $96,375,000 after buying an additional 84,080 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in The Carlyle Group by 4,693.0% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 794,438 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $32,326,000 after acquiring an additional 777,863 shares during the last quarter. 55.88% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CG has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on The Carlyle Group from $48.00 to $46.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered The Carlyle Group from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $46.00 to $44.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Redburn Atlantic initiated coverage on The Carlyle Group in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. They set a “buy” rating and a $55.00 price target for the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price target on The Carlyle Group from $55.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price target on The Carlyle Group from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $46.07.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other The Carlyle Group news, major shareholder Carlyle Group Inc. sold 169,467 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.10, for a total transaction of $7,134,560.70. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 8,724,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $367,294,966.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders have sold a total of 2,197,296 shares of company stock valued at $80,115,160 in the last quarter. Insiders own 27.20% of the company’s stock.

The Carlyle Group Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CG opened at $37.75 on Thursday. The Carlyle Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $27.13 and a fifty-two week high of $50.92. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $41.90 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $43.16. The company has a quick ratio of 2.55, a current ratio of 2.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.75. The firm has a market cap of $13.59 billion, a PE ratio of -21.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.73.

The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 5th. The financial services provider reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by ($0.05). The Carlyle Group had a negative net margin of 11.67% and a positive return on equity of 24.30%. The business had revenue of $1.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $808.73 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.88 EPS. The Carlyle Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 131.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that The Carlyle Group Inc. will post 3.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The Carlyle Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. The Carlyle Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently -78.21%.

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.