The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) Short Interest Up 5.7% in November

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,790,000 shares, a growth of 5.7% from the October 31st total of 4,530,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,050,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.3 days. Approximately 1.5% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, Director David A. Viniar sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $612.08, for a total transaction of $3,060,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 608,425 shares in the company, valued at $372,404,774. This represents a 0.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Brian J. Lee sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was 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 owns 10,095 shares in the company, valued at $5,359,435.50. This represents a 16.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 22,940 shares of company stock valued at $13,717,979. Company insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of The Goldman Sachs Group

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GS. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the third quarter worth $2,161,000. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 3.9% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,660,088 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $898,428,000 after acquiring an additional 62,246 shares in the last quarter. Synovus Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 4.7% in the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 15,998 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $7,920,000 after acquiring an additional 724 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 6.3% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 11,691 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $5,788,000 after buying an additional 688 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB grew its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 18.7% during the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 8,563 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $4,240,000 after buying an additional 1,351 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.21% of the company’s stock.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Down 0.4 %

GS traded down $2.45 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $599.63. 298,224 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,204,828. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $545.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $501.59. The Goldman Sachs Group has a twelve month low of $340.54 and a twelve month high of $612.73. The stock has a market cap of $188.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.38. 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 Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last posted 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 business had revenue of $12.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.77 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 11.39% and a net margin of 9.89%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $5.47 EPS. Equities analysts expect that The Goldman Sachs Group will post 37.15 EPS for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 2.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio is 35.21%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on GS. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $570.00 to $686.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Oppenheimer raised their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $614.00 to $661.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $560.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $600.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, JMP Securities lifted 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. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, The Goldman Sachs Group currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $557.88.

About The Goldman Sachs Group

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.