Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC Sells 37,775 Shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC reduced its holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 38.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 60,753 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 37,775 shares during the quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $34,788,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Aviva PLC increased its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 15.6% during the fourth quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 190,128 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $108,871,000 after buying an additional 25,714 shares during the period. Oarsman Capital Inc. boosted its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Oarsman Capital Inc. now owns 5,317 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $3,045,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. KCM Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. KCM Investment Advisors LLC now owns 6,569 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $3,762,000 after acquiring an additional 163 shares during the period. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $52,574,000. Finally, Leeward Financial Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. Leeward Financial Partners LLC now owns 9,254 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $5,299,000 after purchasing an additional 766 shares during the period. 71.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

The Goldman Sachs Group Price Performance

GS opened at $469.57 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $597.54 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $573.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.32, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $146.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.58, a P/E/G ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.33. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a 52-week low of $387.12 and a 52-week high of $672.19.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $13.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.36 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $5.48 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 47.12 EPS for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th were issued a $3.00 dividend. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.56%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group’s payout ratio is currently 29.59%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on GS shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded The Goldman Sachs Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $690.00 to $660.00 in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $720.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 28th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $610.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $625.00 to $614.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $782.00 to $659.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $589.19.

Insider Activity at The Goldman Sachs Group

In other news, Treasurer Carey Halio sold 3,640 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $636.74, for a total value of $2,317,733.60. Following the completion of the sale, the treasurer now directly owns 4,552 shares in the company, valued at $2,898,440.48. This represents a 44.43 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Kathryn H. Ruemmler sold 7,498 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $634.69, for a total value of $4,758,905.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 9,589 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,086,042.41. This represents a 43.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 19,925 shares of company stock worth $12,630,683. 0.55% 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.