Russell Investments Group Ltd. Grows Stock Position in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

Key Points

• Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group, acquiring an additional 6,539 shares, raising its total ownership to 157,108 shares valued at approximately $85.79 million.
• The Goldman Sachs Group recently reported Q2 earnings of $10.91 EPS, exceeding expectations, along with a year-over-year revenue increase of 14.5%.
• The company announced an increase in its quarterly dividend to $4.00 per share, effective September 29th, bolstering its annualized dividend to $16.00.

Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS - Free Report) by 4.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 157,108 shares of the investment management company's stock after acquiring an additional 6,539 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned about 0.05% of The Goldman Sachs Group worth $85,792,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 63,864.7% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,976,684 shares of the investment management company's stock valued at $2,172,423,000 after buying an additional 3,970,467 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 15.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,292,679 shares of the investment management company's stock valued at $1,885,454,000 after buying an additional 428,502 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group during the first quarter valued at approximately $1,766,238,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,126,762 shares of the investment management company's stock valued at $1,217,844,000 after buying an additional 20,322 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 15.0% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 1,963,836 shares of the investment management company's stock valued at $1,124,532,000 after buying an additional 256,204 shares during the last quarter. 71.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup increased their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $550.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. HSBC reaffirmed a "reduce" rating and set a $627.00 target price (up previously from $558.00) on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $680.00 to $715.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a "market perform" rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $650.00 to $785.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $660.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, CEO David M. Solomon sold 6,608 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $712.31, for a total transaction of $4,706,944.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 126,176 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $89,876,426.56. The trade was a 4.98% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Denis P. Coleman sold 7,463 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $724.40, for a total value of $5,406,197.20. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 18,594 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $13,469,493.60. This represents a 28.64% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 20,079 shares of company stock valued at $14,423,221. 0.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Down 2.2%

Shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock traded down $16.70 during trading on Friday, reaching $730.50. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,645,323 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,885,910. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.57. The company has a market cap of $221.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.38. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a 1-year low of $439.38 and a 1-year high of $749.05. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $694.80 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $617.85.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 16th. The investment management company reported $10.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $9.82 by $1.09. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 14.32% and a net margin of 12.37%. The company had revenue of $14.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $13.53 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $8.62 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 47.12 earnings per share for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 29th will be given a dividend of $4.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 29th. This represents a $16.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.2%. This is an increase from The Goldman Sachs Group's previous quarterly dividend of $3.00. The Goldman Sachs Group's payout ratio is presently 26.44%.

The Goldman Sachs Group 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.