The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) Sets New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $57.39 and last traded at $57.28, with a volume of 478 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $56.95.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on CG. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of The Carlyle Group from $43.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of The Carlyle Group from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of The Carlyle Group from $78.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. TD Cowen upped 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 note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of The Carlyle Group from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. One equities 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 company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $54.44.

The Carlyle Group Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $20.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 196.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.69. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $52.70 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $47.73. 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 (NASDAQ:CG) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $895.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $908.17 million. The Carlyle Group had a net margin of 2.21% and a return on equity of 24.91%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.87 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that The Carlyle Group Inc. will post 3.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Daniel A. D’aniello sold 495,542 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director now owns 32,504,102 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,674,936,376.06. This trade represents a 1.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 27.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of The Carlyle Group

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CG. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of The Carlyle Group in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Valley National Advisers Inc. boosted its position in shares of The Carlyle Group by 149.3% in the fourth quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 546 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 327 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of The Carlyle Group by 253.1% in the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 565 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 405 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new position in shares of The Carlyle Group in the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Finally, Tobam boosted its position in shares of The Carlyle Group by 32.8% in the third quarter. Tobam now owns 890 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 220 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.88% of the company’s stock.

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.