Brokerages Set The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) PT at $594.27

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the eighteen research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $594.27.

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. HSBC downgraded 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. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $782.00 to $659.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $690.00 to $660.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th.

The Goldman Sachs Group Price Performance

NYSE:GS opened at $565.00 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $176.30 billion, a PE ratio of 13.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.37. The Goldman Sachs Group has a 12 month low of $387.12 and a 12 month high of $672.19. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.32. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $610.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $569.20.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The investment management company reported $11.95 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.21 by $3.74. The firm had revenue of $13.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.36 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 11.32% and a return on equity of 13.30%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $5.48 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that The Goldman Sachs Group will post 47.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a $3.00 dividend. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group’s payout ratio is presently 29.59%.

Insider Buying and Selling at The Goldman Sachs Group

In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, Treasurer Carey Halio sold 1,545 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $624.67, for a total value of $965,115.15. Following the completion of the sale, the treasurer now owns 8,192 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,117,296.64. This represents a 15.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Kevin R. Johnson purchased 2,400 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was bought at an average price of $619.02 per share, with a total value of $1,485,648.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 2,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,485,648. This trade represents a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 19,925 shares of company stock valued at $12,630,683. Corporate insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Prostatis Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Prostatis Group LLC now owns 1,076 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $616,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. DSG Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $12,647,000. Objective Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $205,000. CWC Advisors LLC. boosted its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. CWC Advisors LLC. now owns 3,633 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $2,080,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Finally, NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC boosted its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 63.5% in the fourth quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 63,027 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $36,090,000 after buying an additional 24,477 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.21% of the company’s stock.

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.