Wall Street Zen raised its rating on Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) from ‘sell’ to ‘hold’ on October 18, reversing an earlier downgrade of the alternative investment manager. The change comes as Carlyle shares trade near their 52-week low, while recent company filings show higher fee-related earnings but lower reported revenue.
Wall Street Zen Changes Carlyle Group Stock Rating
The latest rating reverses Wall Street Zen’s October 10 downgrade from ‘hold’ to ‘sell.’ The firm's new ‘hold’ assessment does not carry a published price target in the rating data. US stock markets were closed when the Sunday update appeared.
Other analysts remain divided on Carlyle Group stock. MarketBeat lists eight Buy ratings, eight Hold ratings and one Sell rating, giving the company a consensus ‘Hold’ and an average price target of USD 55.
Several firms have also revised their targets during October. UBS kept its ‘Buy’ rating but reduced its target from USD 70 to USD 60 on October 13. TD Cowen maintained ‘Hold’ while lowering its target from USD 54 to USD 42 on October 12.
Carlyle Shares Close Near Annual Low
Carlyle Group shares closed at USD 36.38 on Friday, October 16, down 1.17% for the session. The stock traded between USD 36.22 and USD 37.58 that day, after closing at USD 36.81 on Thursday.
The closing price stood just above the 52-week low of USD 35.41, which the shares touched on October 14. The 52-week high was USD 67.30. Carlyle’s market capitalization stood at about USD 12.96 billion at Friday’s close.
The stock also traded below its 50-day moving average of USD 43.47 and 200-day moving average of USD 45.40. MarketBeat data showed a decline of about 9.4% over the previous month.
Carlyle Reports Higher Distributable Earnings
Carlyle reported second-quarter results on August 5 for the period ending June 30. After-tax distributable earnings reached USD 1.07 per share, compared with USD 0.91 a year earlier. The figure also exceeded the USD 0.91 analyst estimate tracked by MarketBeat.
The company recorded USD 472 million in pre-tax distributable earnings, up from USD 431 million a year earlier. Fee-related earnings increased to USD 358 million from USD 323 million. Meanwhile, total segment revenue rose to USD 1.11 billion from USD 984 million.
However, revenue calculated under US accounting standards fell 28.6% to USD 1.12 billion from USD 1.57 billion. Carlyle reported USD 0.37 in diluted earnings per share under those standards, down from USD 0.87 a year earlier.
Assets under management reached USD 485 billion at June 30, an increase of 4% over the prior year. The company also reported USD 16.8 billion in quarterly investor inflows. Carlyle repurchased or withheld 6.7 million shares for USD 304 million during the quarter. It had USD 1.6 billion left under its share repurchase plan and declared a quarterly dividend of USD 0.35 per share.
Institutional Holdings and Next Results
According to MarketBeat, institutional investors held 55.88% of Carlyle shares. The ownership data includes positions reported by investment managers and other financial institutions.
Separately, an SEC filing shows that Carlyle director David Rubenstein sold 400,000 shares on September 11 at a reported weighted average price of USD 42.74, for approximately USD 17.1 million. He also donated 100,000 shares that day and directly held 26.9 million shares after the transactions.
Carlyle said it will publish its third-quarter 2026 results on November 5. Chief Executive Harvey Schwartz and Chief Financial Officer Justin Plouffe are scheduled to discuss the results during an earnings call that morning.
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