Raymond James & Associates Reduces Position in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

Raymond James & Associates reduced its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 521,879 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 15,089 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates’ holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $258,388,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Procyon Advisors LLC grew its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 830 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $411,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the period. Brookstone Capital Management increased its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 19.9% in the third quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 4,582 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $2,268,000 after purchasing an additional 761 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 62.7% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 6,301 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $2,632,000 after buying an additional 2,428 shares during the period. Duality Advisers LP acquired a new stake in The Goldman Sachs Group in the 1st quarter worth about $1,388,000. Finally, BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S grew its holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group by 34.2% in the 1st quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 8,256 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $3,448,000 after buying an additional 2,103 shares during the period. 71.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GS has been the topic of several research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $360.00 to $373.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $504.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Wolfe Research upgraded The Goldman Sachs Group to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Bank of America upped their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $563.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, JMP Securities boosted their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $525.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, The Goldman Sachs Group presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $524.69.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Down 0.1 %

NYSE GS traded down $0.50 on Friday, hitting $528.50. 1,779,315 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,219,317. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.20. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $498.15 and a 200 day moving average of $469.05. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $289.36 and a twelve month high of $540.51. The company has a market capitalization of $170.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.36.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.89 by $1.51. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 10.56% and a net margin of 9.36%. The business had revenue of $12.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $5.47 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 35.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a $3.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.27%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s payout ratio is currently 46.86%.

Insider Activity at The Goldman Sachs Group

In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, insider Brian J. Lee sold 2,000 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $530.90, for a total value of $1,061,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 10,095 shares in the company, valued at $5,359,435.50. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

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.