The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) Shares Sold by Sawgrass Asset Management LLC

Sawgrass Asset Management LLC cut its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 12.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 4,652 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 679 shares during the period. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $2,664,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Procyon Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 5.5% in the third quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 830 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $411,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC raised its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 8.1% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 38,304 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $21,934,000 after buying an additional 2,863 shares during the last quarter. Park Edge Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $703,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 30.3% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 213,605 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $122,453,000 after buying an additional 49,710 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 2.7% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,042,640 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $2,991,772,000 after buying an additional 161,133 shares during the last quarter. 71.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on GS. Oppenheimer cut their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $677.00 to $639.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $600.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $713.00 to $760.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. HSBC lowered shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $569.00 to $608.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on shares of 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. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $591.06.

The Goldman Sachs Group Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE GS opened at $649.17 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.32. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a 52 week low of $375.20 and a 52 week high of $663.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $201.53 billion, a PE ratio of 16.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 1.39. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $601.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $549.42.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 15th. The investment management company reported $11.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $8.21 by $3.74. The Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 11.32% and a return on equity of 13.30%. The business had revenue of $13.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.36 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $5.48 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 22.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 47.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a $3.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.85%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.59%.

Insider Activity at The Goldman Sachs Group

In related news, CAO Sheara J. Fredman sold 2,034 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $627.01, for a total value of $1,275,338.34. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 6,455 shares in the company, valued at $4,047,349.55. This represents a 23.96 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO David M. Solomon sold 6,550 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $610.91, for a total transaction of $4,001,460.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 117,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $72,015,903.53. The trade was a 5.26 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 31,475 shares of company stock worth $19,692,543 in the last 90 days. 0.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.