Smith Moore & CO. Purchases Shares of 655 The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

Smith Moore & CO. purchased a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 655 shares of the investment management company’s stock, valued at approximately $375,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 224,148 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $129,144,000 after acquiring an additional 5,541 shares during the period. Baxter Bros Inc. boosted its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Baxter Bros Inc. now owns 15,506 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $8,879,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares during the period. Erste Asset Management GmbH grew its holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH now owns 5,743 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $3,309,000 after purchasing an additional 320 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC increased its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 8.1% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 38,304 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $21,934,000 after buying an additional 2,863 shares during the period. Finally, Atlas Legacy Advisors LLC acquired a new position in The Goldman Sachs Group in the 4th quarter worth $356,000. 71.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GS has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer lowered The Goldman Sachs Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $782.00 to $659.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $625.00 to $614.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $585.00 to $550.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $610.00 to $640.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $589.19.

The Goldman Sachs Group Trading Down 8.1 %

Shares of GS stock opened at $469.57 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $146.52 billion, a PE ratio of 11.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.32, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.67. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $387.12 and a 1 year high of $672.19. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $597.54 and a two-hundred day moving average of $573.37.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The investment management company reported $11.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.21 by $3.74. The Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 11.32% and a return on equity of 13.30%. The firm had revenue of $13.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.36 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $5.48 EPS. The Goldman Sachs Group’s revenue was up 22.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 47.12 EPS for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th were paid a dividend of $3.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.56%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.59%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Alex S. Golten sold 5,208 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $636.25, for a total value of $3,313,590.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 3,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,255,506.25. The trade was a 59.50 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Treasurer Carey Halio sold 1,545 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $624.67, for a total transaction of $965,115.15. Following the sale, the treasurer now directly 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 19,925 shares of company stock worth $12,630,683 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.55% of the company’s stock.

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.