Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. Raises Position in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. lifted its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 13.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,841 shares of the investment management company’s stock after purchasing an additional 469 shares during the period. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $2,199,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GS. Swedbank AB lifted its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 4.2% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 339,047 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $167,866,000 after purchasing an additional 13,730 shares during the period. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.3% in the third quarter. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,199 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $1,088,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. Sigma Planning Corp lifted its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 0.5% in the third quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 4,605 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $2,280,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the third quarter valued at about $828,000. Finally, Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV lifted its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 6.7% in the third quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 879 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $435,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.21% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at The Goldman Sachs Group

In other news, insider Alex S. Golten sold 5,208 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $636.25, for a total value of $3,313,590.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 3,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,255,506.25. This represents a 59.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathryn H. Ruemmler sold 7,498 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $634.69, for a total transaction of $4,758,905.62. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 9,589 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,086,042.41. The trade was a 43.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 19,925 shares of company stock valued at $12,630,683 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Hsbc Global Res cut shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $690.00 to $660.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of 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, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of 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. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $591.69.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE GS opened at $531.59 on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a 12 month low of $383.41 and a 12 month high of $672.19. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $615.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $566.64. The company has a market cap of $165.88 billion, a PE ratio of 13.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.37. 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 released 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 Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 11.32% and a return on equity of 13.30%. The firm had revenue of $13.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.36 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $5.48 earnings per share. The Goldman Sachs Group’s revenue was up 22.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 47.12 earnings per share for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a $3.00 dividend. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group’s payout ratio is currently 29.59%.

The Goldman Sachs Group 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.