Brighton Jones LLC Raises Stock Holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 17.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 3,474 shares of the investment management company’s stock after acquiring an additional 508 shares during the quarter. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $1,989,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. West Branch Capital LLC acquired a new position in The Goldman Sachs Group in the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. DT Investment Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 110.0% in the third quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 63 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the period. Truvestments Capital LLC purchased a new stake in The Goldman Sachs Group during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $34,000. Country Trust Bank purchased a new stake in The Goldman Sachs Group during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $37,000. Finally, Hershey Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in The Goldman Sachs Group during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $38,000. 71.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

The Goldman Sachs Group Price Performance

Shares of GS opened at $636.80 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $590.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $534.48. The stock has a market cap of $199.90 billion, a PE ratio of 15.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.38. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a 1-year low of $374.24 and a 1-year high of $645.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.32, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The investment management company reported $11.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.21 by $3.74. The firm had revenue of $13.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.36 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 13.30% and a net margin of 11.32%. The business’s revenue was up 22.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $5.48 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 46.81 EPS for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a $3.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.88%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s payout ratio is 29.59%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $550.00 to $605.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. UBS Group upped their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $610.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $520.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $485.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $736.00 to $782.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Eight 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, The Goldman Sachs Group has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $591.06.

Insider Activity at The Goldman Sachs Group

In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, EVP John F.W. Rogers sold 6,416 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $596.36, for a total transaction of $3,826,245.76. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 57,614 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,358,685.04. This trade represents a 10.02 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Sheara J. Fredman sold 2,974 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $594.51, for a total value of $1,768,072.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,489 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,046,795.39. The trade was a 25.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 32,017 shares of company stock worth $19,655,538 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.