The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $3.00

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, July 12th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 30th will be given a dividend of 3.00 per share by the investment management company on Friday, September 27th. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.39%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 30th. This is a boost from The Goldman Sachs Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.75.

The Goldman Sachs Group has raised its dividend by an average of 28.1% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 13 years. The Goldman Sachs Group has a payout ratio of 28.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect The Goldman Sachs Group to earn $41.40 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $12.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 29.0%.

The Goldman Sachs Group Trading Down 0.8 %

NYSE GS traded down $4.24 on Wednesday, reaching $503.02. The company had a trading volume of 520,180 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,275,098. The Goldman Sachs Group has a 52 week low of $289.36 and a 52 week high of $517.26. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $481.53 and its 200-day moving average is $441.40. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.97. The stock has a market cap of $162.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.81, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.37.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last posted its earnings results on Monday, July 15th. The investment management company reported $8.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $8.52 by $0.10. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 10.26% and a net margin of 9.36%. The company had revenue of $12.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.60 billion. Equities analysts predict that The Goldman Sachs Group will post 36.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $360.00 to $373.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $504.00 to $559.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $461.00 to $464.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Barclays increased their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $493.00 to $565.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $460.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, The Goldman Sachs Group presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $495.94.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Thomas K. Montag sold 10,000 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $505.04, for a total transaction of $5,050,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 12,450 shares in the company, valued at $6,287,748. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director Thomas K. Montag sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $505.04, for a total value of $5,050,400.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 12,450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,287,748. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Goldman Sachs Group Inc sold 4,000,000 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.34, for a total transaction of $25,360,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,981,022 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $82,299,679.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 4,013,500 shares of company stock valued at $32,181,365. 0.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.