Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Lowers Holdings in The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. reduced its stake in shares of The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG) by 11.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 237,525 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 31,070 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. owned about 0.07% of The Carlyle Group worth $11,993,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Ariel Investments LLC boosted its stake in 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. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of The Carlyle Group by 72.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,051,757 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $174,469,000 after acquiring an additional 1,707,520 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of The Carlyle Group by 6.5% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,266,595 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $90,999,000 after purchasing an additional 137,541 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in The Carlyle Group by 22.8% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,107,301 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $90,740,000 after purchasing an additional 391,553 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in The Carlyle Group by 68.1% during 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 purchasing an additional 777,304 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.88% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CG has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on The Carlyle Group from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Barclays raised their price target on The Carlyle Group from $59.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of The Carlyle Group from $43.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of The Carlyle Group from $78.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $54.44.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other The Carlyle Group news, Director Daniel A. D’aniello sold 495,542 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 32,504,102 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,674,936,376.06. This represents a 1.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 27.20% of the company’s stock.

The Carlyle Group Trading Up 1.8 %

NASDAQ CG opened at $55.24 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $52.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $46.94. The company has a quick ratio of 2.32, a current ratio of 2.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38. The Carlyle Group Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.65 and a 52 week high of $55.65. The firm has a market cap of $19.76 billion, a PE ratio of 190.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.69.

The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $895.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $908.17 million. The Carlyle Group had a return on equity of 24.91% and a net margin of 2.21%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.87 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that The Carlyle Group Inc. will post 3.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The Carlyle Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th were paid 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 dividend yield of 2.53%. The Carlyle Group’s payout ratio is 482.76%.

The Carlyle Group 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.