Traders Purchase High Volume of Put Options on The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG)

The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG) was the target of unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock investors purchased 8,572 put options on the company. This is an increase of 322% compared to the typical daily volume of 2,031 put options.

Insider Transactions at The Carlyle Group

In other The Carlyle Group news, major shareholder Carlyle Group Inc. purchased 190,000 shares of The Carlyle Group stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $12.95 per share, with a total value of $2,460,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 1,066,189 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,807,147.55. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 27.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of The Carlyle Group by 7.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,876,188 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,012,212,000 after acquiring an additional 1,756,189 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of The Carlyle Group by 11.3% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 24,697,730 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $736,980,000 after acquiring an additional 2,514,895 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of The Carlyle Group by 39.1% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 18,573,738 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $576,900,000 after acquiring an additional 5,223,114 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of The Carlyle Group by 65.9% in the third quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 8,877,428 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $267,743,000 after acquiring an additional 3,524,794 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ariel Investments LLC boosted its holdings in The Carlyle Group by 16.9% during the third quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 6,364,528 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $191,954,000 after buying an additional 918,114 shares in the last quarter. 55.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on CG shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of The Carlyle Group from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of The Carlyle Group from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. JMP Securities increased their price target on shares of 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. Barclays increased their price target on shares of The Carlyle Group from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Finally, TD Cowen began coverage on shares of The Carlyle Group in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $42.00 price target for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $43.07.

The Carlyle Group Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CG opened at $44.08 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $45.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $39.01. The Carlyle Group has a 12 month low of $25.20 and a 12 month high of $48.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a current ratio of 2.27 and a quick ratio of 2.27. The firm has a market capitalization 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 (NASDAQ:CG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The financial services provider reported $0.86 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.08. The Carlyle Group had a negative net margin of 20.53% and a positive return on equity of 19.74%. The firm had revenue of $896.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $860.68 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.01 EPS. The Carlyle Group’s revenue for the quarter was down 15.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that The Carlyle Group will post 3.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The Carlyle Group Dividend Announcement

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