Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Increases Position in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. raised its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 19.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,552 shares of the investment management company’s stock after purchasing an additional 909 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $3,179,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of GS. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group during the third quarter worth approximately $206,000. Townsquare Capital LLC boosted its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 30.7% during the 3rd quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 7,135 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $3,533,000 after acquiring an additional 1,675 shares during the last quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. increased its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. now owns 2,485 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $1,230,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. raised its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 1,240.2% in the 3rd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 4,771 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $2,362,000 after purchasing an additional 4,415 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Icon Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 35.8% during the third quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 482 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $239,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GS. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $605.00 to $625.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $720.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $713.00 to $760.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $690.00 to $660.00 in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Oppenheimer lowered shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $590.60.

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 value of $965,115.15. Following the completion of the sale, the treasurer now owns 8,192 shares in the company, valued at $5,117,296.64. This represents a 15.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Alex S. Golten sold 5,208 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $636.25, for a total value of $3,313,590.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 3,545 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,255,506.25. The trade was a 59.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 19,925 shares of company stock worth $12,630,683 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.55% of the company’s stock.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Down 2.8 %

GS opened at $543.04 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $608.15 and its 200 day moving average price is $571.66. 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 stock has a market cap of $169.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.39, a P/E/G ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.37. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a 12 month low of $387.12 and a 12 month high of $672.19.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The investment management company reported $11.95 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.21 by $3.74. The company had revenue of $13.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.36 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 13.30% and a net margin of 11.32%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $5.48 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 47.12 earnings per share for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th were paid a $3.00 dividend. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.21%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend 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.