Cerity Partners LLC Acquires Shares of 54,289 The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG)

Cerity Partners LLC acquired a new stake in The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 54,289 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,209,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of The Carlyle Group by 3.6% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 586,876 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $28,704,000 after purchasing an additional 20,136 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of The Carlyle Group by 7.3% in the 1st quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 7,786 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $381,000 after purchasing an additional 531 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC bought a new position in shares of The Carlyle Group in the 1st quarter worth $200,000. MetLife Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of The Carlyle Group in the 1st quarter worth $159,000. Finally, BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in shares of The Carlyle Group by 7.2% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 15,257,115 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $746,227,000 after purchasing an additional 1,020,504 shares during the last quarter. 55.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other The Carlyle Group news, major shareholder Carlyle Group Inc. purchased 190,000 shares of The Carlyle Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $12.95 per share, for a total transaction of $2,460,500.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now owns 1,066,189 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,807,147.55. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 27.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on CG. TheStreet downgraded The Carlyle Group from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. UBS Group raised their price objective on The Carlyle Group from $46.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Citigroup raised their price objective on The Carlyle Group from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on The Carlyle Group from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, JMP Securities lifted their price target on The Carlyle Group from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $43.07.

The Carlyle Group Price Performance

NASDAQ:CG opened at $44.08 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 2.27 and a current ratio of 2.27. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $45.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $39.01. The company has a market cap of $15.96 billion, a P/E ratio of -26.08, a P/E/G ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.79. The Carlyle Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $25.20 and a 52-week high of $48.52.

The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The financial services provider reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $896.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $860.68 million. The Carlyle Group had a positive return on equity of 19.74% and a negative net margin of 20.53%. The Carlyle Group’s quarterly revenue was down 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.01 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that The Carlyle Group Inc. will post 3.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The Carlyle Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. The Carlyle Group’s payout ratio is currently -82.84%.

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.