The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) saw a significant increase in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,790,000 shares, an increase of 5.7% from the October 31st total of 4,530,000 shares. Currently, 1.5% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,050,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.3 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at The Goldman Sachs Group

In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, Director David A. Viniar sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $612.08, for a total value of $3,060,400.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 608,425 shares in the company, valued at $372,404,774. This trade represents a 0.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Sheara J. Fredman sold 2,974 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $594.51, for a total transaction of $1,768,072.74. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,489 shares in the company, valued at $5,046,795.39. This represents a 25.94 % 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 worth $13,717,979 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On The Goldman Sachs Group

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GS. Waddell & Associates LLC lifted its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Waddell & Associates LLC now owns 896 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $444,000 after purchasing an additional 18 shares in the last quarter. Wescott Financial Advisory Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Wescott Financial Advisory Group LLC now owns 2,719 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $1,346,000 after buying an additional 18 shares during the last quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,399 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $1,085,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. First Pacific Financial increased its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. First Pacific Financial now owns 3,167 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $1,568,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Krane Funds Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Krane Funds Advisors LLC now owns 1,177 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $583,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. 71.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GS has been the subject of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $472.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $550.00 to $560.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. HSBC downgraded The Goldman Sachs Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $569.00 to $608.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Citigroup upped their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $485.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Wolfe Research raised The Goldman Sachs Group to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, The Goldman Sachs Group presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $557.88.

The Goldman Sachs Group Trading Down 0.6 %

The Goldman Sachs Group stock opened at $598.69 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $547.25 and a 200-day moving average of $502.27. The Goldman Sachs Group has a one year low of $340.54 and a one year high of $612.73. 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 cap of $187.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.57, a P/E/G ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.38.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The investment management company reported $8.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $12.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.77 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $5.47 EPS. The Goldman Sachs Group’s revenue was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that The Goldman Sachs Group will post 37.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Dividend Announcement

The business 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 dividend of $3.00 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.00%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.21%.

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.