The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) Stock Price Up 0.5% Following Analyst Upgrade

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)’s share price was up 0.5% during trading on Tuesday after Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on the stock from $570.00 to $686.00. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods currently has an outperform rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group traded as high as $611.42 and last traded at $604.55. Approximately 332,760 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 85% from the average daily volume of 2,207,544 shares. The stock had previously closed at $601.71.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on GS. Hsbc Global Res cut shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $550.00 to $560.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $614.00 to $661.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $472.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, HSBC cut shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $569.00 to $608.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $557.88.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Brian J. Lee sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $530.90, for a total value of $1,061,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director David A. Viniar sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the director now owns 608,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $372,404,774. The trade was a 0.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 22,940 shares of company stock valued at $13,717,979 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On The Goldman Sachs Group

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GS. POM Investment Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the 2nd quarter worth about $26,000. Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $27,000. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. raised its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 103.3% in the 2nd quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 61 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares during the period. Finally, Quest Partners LLC raised its holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group by 6,300.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 64 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.21% of the company’s stock.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Up 0.0 %

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 stock has a market capitalization of $188.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.66, a P/E/G ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.38. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $545.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $501.59.

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 for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.89 by $1.51. The company had revenue of $12.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.77 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 9.89% and a return on equity of 11.39%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $5.47 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 37.15 earnings per share for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a $3.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.99%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.