The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) Receives $559.75 Consensus PT from Analysts

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and thirteen have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $559.75.

A number of research firms recently issued reports on GS. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $565.00 to $588.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. HSBC cut shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $569.00 to $608.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. JMP Securities upped their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $525.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $570.00 to $686.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded The Goldman Sachs Group to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th.

The Goldman Sachs Group Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock opened at $585.48 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $183.79 billion, a PE ratio of 17.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.38. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $561.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $508.99. The Goldman Sachs Group has a 1 year low of $365.00 and a 1 year high of $612.73. 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 (NYSE:GS) last announced 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 Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 11.39% and a net margin of 9.89%. The company had revenue of $12.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.77 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $5.47 earnings per share. The Goldman Sachs Group’s quarterly revenue was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that The Goldman Sachs Group will post 37.06 earnings per share for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a dividend of $3.00 per share. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group’s payout ratio is 35.21%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO David M. Solomon sold 6,550 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $610.91, for a total transaction of $4,001,460.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 117,883 shares in the company, valued at approximately $72,015,903.53. The trade was a 5.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Brian J. Lee sold 2,000 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $530.90, for a total value of $1,061,800.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly 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. Insiders have sold 22,940 shares of company stock worth $13,717,979 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On The Goldman Sachs Group

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Procyon Advisors LLC lifted its holdings 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 worth $411,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the period. Brookstone Capital Management lifted its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 19.9% in the 3rd 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 period. Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the second quarter valued at about $5,529,000. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC increased its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 3.1% during the second quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 100,119 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $45,286,000 after acquiring an additional 2,993 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. raised its holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group by 24.1% during the second quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 14,987 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $6,779,000 after purchasing an additional 2,912 shares in the last quarter. 71.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.