Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Makes New $2.47 Million Investment in The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in shares of The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 60,800 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $2,474,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of CG. BlackRock Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of The Carlyle Group by 39.1% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 18,573,738 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $576,900,000 after buying an additional 5,223,114 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in The Carlyle Group by 65.9% in the 3rd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 8,877,428 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $267,743,000 after purchasing an additional 3,524,794 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in The Carlyle Group in the 4th quarter worth about $102,358,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in The Carlyle Group by 3,186.7% in the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,287,396 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $102,104,000 after purchasing an additional 3,187,376 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in The Carlyle Group by 11.3% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 24,697,730 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $736,980,000 after purchasing an additional 2,514,895 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 55.88% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Carlyle Group Inc. bought 190,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $12.95 per share, with a total value of $2,460,500.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now directly owns 1,066,189 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $13,807,147.55. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 27.00% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CG has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of The Carlyle Group from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Citigroup upped their target price 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. Barclays upped their target price 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. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of The Carlyle Group from $34.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, JMP Securities upped their target price 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, The Carlyle Group currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $43.07.

The Carlyle Group Stock Down 1.0 %

NASDAQ CG traded down $0.43 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $44.63. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,295,779 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,300,520. 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 company has a market cap of $16.16 billion, a PE ratio of -26.41, a P/E/G ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.79. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $45.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.88. The Carlyle Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.20 and a fifty-two week high of $48.52.

The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The financial services provider reported $0.86 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $896.40 million during 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 company's quarterly revenue was down 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.01 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that The Carlyle Group Inc. will post 3.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The Carlyle Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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 dividend yield of 3.14%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. The Carlyle Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -82.84%.

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.