First Interstate Bank Decreases Stock Position in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

First Interstate Bank lowered its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 2.1% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 11,231 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 241 shares during the period. First Interstate Bank’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $5,561,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. POM Investment Strategies LLC acquired a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in The Goldman Sachs Group in the second quarter valued at $26,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in The Goldman Sachs Group during the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. increased its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 103.3% in the 2nd quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 61 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quest Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 6,300.0% in the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 64 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. 71.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on GS. Bank of America lifted 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, October 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $555.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Barclays upped their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $565.00 to $588.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $550.00 to $560.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $524.69.

The Goldman Sachs Group Price Performance

The Goldman Sachs Group stock traded up $1.56 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $519.35. 1,625,284 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,191,625. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a 1-year low of $308.00 and a 1-year high of $540.51. The firm has a market cap of $164.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.24, a P/E/G ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 1.36. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $502.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $477.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.07.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The investment management company reported $8.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.89 by $1.51. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 11.05% and a net margin of 9.89%. The firm had revenue of $12.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.47 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 37.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be issued a $3.00 dividend. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group’s payout ratio is 35.21%.

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.