Analysts Set The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) PT at $593.56

Shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the nineteen analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and ten have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $591.69.

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $736.00 to $782.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded The Goldman Sachs Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $690.00 to $660.00 in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group raised their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $610.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a report on Friday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $550.00 to $605.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Performance

GS stock opened at $622.11 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $194.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.39. The Goldman Sachs Group has a 1 year low of $381.42 and a 1 year high of $672.19. 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 stock’s fifty day moving average price is $616.74 and its 200-day moving average price is $562.46.

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

The Goldman Sachs Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a dividend of $3.00 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.93%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.59%.

Insider Buying and Selling at The Goldman Sachs Group

In other news, CAO Sheara J. Fredman sold 2,034 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $627.01, for a total transaction of $1,275,338.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 6,455 shares in the company, valued at $4,047,349.55. This trade represents a 23.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Treasurer Carey Halio sold 3,640 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $636.74, for a total value of $2,317,733.60. Following the transaction, the treasurer now owns 4,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,898,440.48. The trade was a 44.43 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 19,925 shares of company stock valued at $12,630,683 over the last ninety days. 0.57% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GS. Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 30,068.9% in 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. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,584,202 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $3,761,576,000 after acquiring an additional 161,500 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,155,336 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $3,524,669,000 after acquiring an additional 112,696 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 23.7% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,586,348 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $2,053,614,000 after acquiring an additional 687,711 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 15.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,292,679 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $1,885,454,000 after acquiring an additional 428,502 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.21% 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.