The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) Given Average Rating of "Hold" by Brokerages

Shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus rating of "Hold" from the seventeen ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $660.00.

A number of research analysts recently commented on GS shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $680.00 to $715.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a "sector perform" rating on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $771.00 to $790.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $760.00 to $720.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $650.00 to $785.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Performance

NYSE:GS traded up $9.45 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $728.63. 1,850,923 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,301,066. The stock has a market capitalization of $223.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.35. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $657.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $605.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.26, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 1.12. The Goldman Sachs Group has a fifty-two week low of $437.37 and a fifty-two week high of $729.89.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 16th. The investment management company reported $10.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $9.82 by $1.09. The business had revenue of $14.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $13.53 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 12.37% and a return on equity of 13.84%. The business's revenue was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $8.62 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that The Goldman Sachs Group will post 47.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 29th will be issued a dividend of $4.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 29th. This is an increase from The Goldman Sachs Group's previous quarterly dividend of $3.00. This represents a $16.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.20%. The Goldman Sachs Group's dividend payout ratio is 26.44%.

Insider Buying and Selling at The Goldman Sachs Group

In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, EVP John F.W. Rogers sold 6,008 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $717.39, for a total value of $4,310,079.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 65,761 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,176,283.79. This represents a 8.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Denis P. Coleman sold 7,463 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 18,594 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,469,493.60. This represents a 28.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 20,079 shares of company stock valued at $14,423,221 over the last three months. 0.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On The Goldman Sachs Group

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 617,504.5% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 29,058,291 shares of the investment management company's stock worth $20,566,005,000 after purchasing an additional 29,053,586 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,584,202 shares of the investment management company's stock worth $3,761,576,000 after buying an additional 161,500 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 63,864.7% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,976,684 shares of the investment management company's stock worth $2,172,423,000 after purchasing an additional 3,970,467 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 23.7% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,586,348 shares of the investment management company's stock worth $2,053,614,000 after purchasing an additional 687,711 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,332,804 shares of the investment management company's stock worth $1,820,677,000 after purchasing an additional 40,125 shares during the last quarter. 71.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.