The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and thirteen have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $559.75.

Several brokerages have issued reports on GS. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $520.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note 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. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $614.00 to $661.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $485.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, HSBC downgraded The Goldman Sachs Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their target price for the company from $569.00 to $608.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director David A. Viniar sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $612.08, for a total transaction of $3,060,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 608,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $372,404,774. This trade represents a 0.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Brian J. Lee sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were 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 approximately $5,359,435.50. The trade was a 16.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 22,940 shares of company stock valued at $13,717,979 in the last 90 days. 0.57% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of The Goldman Sachs Group

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 30,068.9% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 7,500,000 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $3,713,325,000 after acquiring an additional 7,475,140 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group by 21.9% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,898,637 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $1,435,144,000 after purchasing an additional 521,054 shares in the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 7,932.6% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 444,285 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $200,959,000 after purchasing an additional 438,754 shares during the period. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. grew its holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group by 878.8% during the 2nd quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 397,082 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $179,608,000 after buying an additional 356,512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 154.7% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 414,867 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $205,403,000 after buying an additional 251,972 shares during the period. 71.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

The Goldman Sachs Group Price Performance

Shares of GS opened at $574.68 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $564.47 and a 200-day moving average of $510.78. 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 company has a market capitalization of $180.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.38. The Goldman Sachs Group has a 1 year low of $372.07 and a 1 year high of $612.73.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 9.89% and a return on equity of 11.39%. The firm 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 earned $5.47 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that The Goldman Sachs Group will post 37.06 earnings per share for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a $3.00 dividend. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. 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.