The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS) To Go Ex-Dividend on December 2nd

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, October 11th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a dividend of 3.00 per share by the investment management company on Monday, December 30th. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd.

The Goldman Sachs Group has increased its dividend by an average of 28.1% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. The Goldman Sachs Group has a payout ratio of 28.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect The Goldman Sachs Group to earn $42.65 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $12.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 28.1%.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Performance

NYSE:GS opened at $609.31 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.32, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The Goldman Sachs Group has a 1 year low of $340.09 and a 1 year high of $612.73. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $540.94 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $499.16. The company has a market cap of $191.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.88, a PEG ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.35.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The investment management company reported $8.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.89 by $1.51. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 11.39% and a net margin of 9.89%. The business had revenue of $12.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.77 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $5.47 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that The Goldman Sachs Group will post 37.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group boosted their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $550.00 to $560.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $563.00 to $575.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $520.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $472.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $565.00 to $588.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $550.63.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Sheara J. Fredman sold 2,974 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $594.51, for a total value of $1,768,072.74. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,489 shares in the company, valued at $5,046,795.39. This trade represents a 25.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Brian J. Lee sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $530.90, for a total value of $1,061,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 10,095 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,359,435.50. This trade represents a 16.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 11,390 shares of company stock worth $6,656,119. 0.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About The Goldman Sachs Group

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc, a financial institution, provides a range of financial services for corporations, financial institutions, governments, and individuals worldwide. It operates through Global Banking & Markets, Asset & Wealth Management, and Platform Solutions segments. The Global Banking & Markets segment provides financial advisory services, including strategic advisory assignments related to mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, corporate defense activities, restructurings, and spin-offs; and relationship lending, and acquisition financing, as well as secured lending, through structured credit and asset-backed lending and involved in financing under securities to resale agreements.