Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. Buys 25 Shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 18.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 164 shares of the investment management company’s stock after buying an additional 25 shares during the period. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc.’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $94,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 30,068.9% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 7,500,000 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $3,713,325,000 after purchasing an additional 7,475,140 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 21.9% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,898,637 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $1,435,144,000 after buying an additional 521,054 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 154.7% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 414,867 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $205,403,000 after buying an additional 251,972 shares in the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. raised its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 829.0% during the third quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 260,317 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $128,886,000 after acquiring an additional 232,297 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rheos Capital Works Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 265.4% in the third quarter. Rheos Capital Works Inc. now owns 248,500 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $123,035,000 after acquiring an additional 180,500 shares during the last quarter. 71.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $686.00 to $690.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Barclays raised their target price on 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. Citigroup increased their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $485.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. HSBC downgraded shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their target price for the company from $569.00 to $608.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, UBS Group increased 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 report on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, The Goldman Sachs Group currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $591.06.

The Goldman Sachs Group Price Performance

GS stock opened at $636.80 on Friday. 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 business has a 50-day simple moving average of $591.21 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $535.67. The company has a market capitalization of $199.90 billion, a P/E 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 52-week low of $374.24 and a 52-week high of $645.54.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The investment management company reported $11.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $8.21 by $3.74. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 13.30% and a net margin of 11.32%. 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 prior year, the company posted $5.48 earnings per share. The Goldman Sachs Group’s revenue was up 22.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 46.81 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 issued a dividend of $3.00 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.88%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.59%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Treasurer Carey Halio sold 1,545 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $624.67, for a total transaction of $965,115.15. Following the transaction, the treasurer now owns 8,192 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,117,296.64. This represents a 15.87 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP John F.W. Rogers sold 6,416 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $596.36, for a total value 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 32,017 shares of company stock valued at $19,655,538 in the last ninety days. 0.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.