The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $558.38.

A number of equities analysts recently commented on GS shares. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $560.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. 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 research report on Wednesday, October 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $520.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Citigroup upped their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $485.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $563.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th.

Insider Activity

In other news, 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 sale, 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO David M. Solomon sold 6,550 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 117,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $72,015,903.53. This trade represents a 5.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 22,940 shares of company stock worth $13,717,979. 0.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GS. Procyon Advisors LLC boosted its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 5.5% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management boosted 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 period. Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group during the second quarter worth $5,529,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 2.1% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 364,276 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $180,357,000 after buying an additional 7,644 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 2.7% during the third 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 in the last quarter. 71.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of GS opened at $580.13 on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group has a one year low of $372.07 and a one 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 firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $578.26 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $520.79. The company has a market cap of $182.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.02, a P/E/G ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 1.38.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The investment management company reported $8.40 earnings per share 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 analyst estimates of $11.77 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $5.47 EPS. The Goldman Sachs Group’s quarterly revenue was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that The Goldman Sachs Group will post 37.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a $3.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.07%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s payout ratio is currently 35.21%.

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.