Retirement Systems of Alabama Trims Stake in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

Retirement Systems of Alabama cut its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 6.7% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 190,074 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 13,679 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $94,108,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Procyon Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 5.5% during the third quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 830 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $411,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management grew its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 19.9% in the third quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 4,582 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $2,268,000 after acquiring an additional 761 shares during the last quarter. Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the 2nd quarter worth about $5,529,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,042,640 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $2,991,772,000 after purchasing an additional 161,133 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 129.9% during the 3rd quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 23,709 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $11,739,000 after purchasing an additional 13,398 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.21% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Brian J. Lee sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $530.90, for a total transaction of $1,061,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 10,095 shares in the company, valued at $5,359,435.50. The trade was a 16.54 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Sheara J. Fredman sold 2,974 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $594.51, for a total transaction of $1,768,072.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,489 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,046,795.39. The trade was a 25.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 22,940 shares of company stock valued at $13,717,979 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GS. Barclays upped their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $565.00 to $588.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. JMP Securities raised their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $525.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $614.00 to $661.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $560.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $559.75.

The Goldman Sachs Group Trading Up 0.3 %

GS opened at $593.23 on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a 12 month low of $365.00 and a 12 month high of $612.73. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.32. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $559.27 and a 200 day moving average of $507.43. The firm has a market cap of $186.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.36, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.38.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The investment management company reported $8.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.89 by $1.51. The company had revenue of $12.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.77 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 11.39% and a net margin of 9.89%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s quarterly revenue was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $5.47 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 37.06 EPS for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be issued a dividend of $3.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.02%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s payout ratio is 35.21%.

The Goldman Sachs Group Company Profile

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.