The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) Trading 0.7% Higher Following Analyst Upgrade

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)’s stock price shot up 0.7% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $450.00 to $504.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group traded as high as $447.42 and last traded at $446.92. 476,182 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 80% from the average session volume of 2,348,587 shares. The stock had previously closed at $443.67.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on GS. Oppenheimer raised their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $479.00 to $517.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. Daiwa Capital Markets raised The Goldman Sachs Group from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $410.00 to $430.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $410.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $390.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $424.00 to $433.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $440.57.

Insider Buying and Selling at The Goldman Sachs Group

In related news, CFO Denis P. Coleman sold 12,680 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.43, for a total transaction of $5,001,372.40. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,417 shares in the company, valued at $11,602,947.31. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, CFO Denis P. Coleman sold 12,680 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.43, for a total value of $5,001,372.40. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,417 shares in the company, valued at $11,602,947.31. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director David A. Viniar sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $432.25, for a total value of $2,161,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 623,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $269,475,456.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 29,330 shares of company stock worth $11,713,578. Corporate insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GS. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 13.7% in the 4th quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 166,656 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $64,291,000 after buying an additional 20,018 shares during the last quarter. HTLF Bank bought a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $850,000. Wealth Alliance raised its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 17.3% during the 4th quarter. Wealth Alliance now owns 1,035 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $399,000 after buying an additional 153 shares in the last quarter. Trueblood Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in The Goldman Sachs Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $989,000. Finally, TBH Global Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 2.0% in the third quarter. TBH Global Asset Management LLC now owns 3,676 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $1,190,000 after buying an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. 71.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

The Goldman Sachs Group Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $145.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.45, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.40. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $406.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $377.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 15th. The investment management company reported $11.58 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $8.54 by $3.04. The firm had revenue of $14.21 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.94 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 8.65% and a net margin of 8.17%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $8.79 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 36.07 earnings per share for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 30th will be issued a dividend of $2.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 30th. This represents a $11.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.46%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.95%.

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.