Legal & General Group Plc Sells 596,132 Shares of The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG)

Legal & General Group Plc lessened its holdings in The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG) by 15.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,356,917 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 596,132 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.94% of The Carlyle Group worth $169,491,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Arizona State Retirement System increased its position in The Carlyle Group by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 67,239 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,395,000 after acquiring an additional 220 shares during the last quarter. Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its stake in shares of The Carlyle Group by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 80,820 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,081,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares during the period. Aviva PLC boosted its stake in shares of The Carlyle Group by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 17,408 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $879,000 after purchasing an additional 227 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS boosted its stake in shares of The Carlyle Group by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 46,607 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,353,000 after purchasing an additional 258 shares during the period. Finally, DMC Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of The Carlyle Group by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. DMC Group LLC now owns 6,932 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $350,000 after purchasing an additional 283 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 55.88% of the company’s stock.

The Carlyle Group Trading Up 11.7 %

NASDAQ:CG opened at $39.56 on Thursday. The Carlyle Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $33.02 and a 12-month high of $57.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.23, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 2.32 and a quick ratio of 2.32. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $45.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $49.31.

The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) last announced its earnings results on Monday, February 10th. The financial services provider reported $0.92 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.00 by ($0.08). The Carlyle Group had a net margin of 18.81% and a return on equity of 24.02%. Equities research analysts predict that The Carlyle Group Inc. will post 4.48 EPS for the current year.

The Carlyle Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.54%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. The Carlyle Group’s payout ratio is currently 50.36%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JMP Securities lowered their target price on shares of The Carlyle Group from $62.00 to $58.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. StockNews.com lowered shares of The Carlyle Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Wolfe Research raised shares of The Carlyle Group from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $60.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of The Carlyle Group from $55.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of The Carlyle Group from $55.00 to $43.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $51.06.

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.