First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. Increases Holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 12.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,472 shares of the investment management company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,260 shares during the quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $5,680,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Procyon Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 830 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $411,000 after buying an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management lifted its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 19.9% in the 3rd quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 4,582 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $2,268,000 after purchasing an additional 761 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 62.7% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 6,301 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $2,632,000 after purchasing an additional 2,428 shares during the period. Duality Advisers LP bought a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,388,000. Finally, BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S boosted its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 34.2% during the first quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 8,256 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $3,448,000 after buying an additional 2,103 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.21% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at The Goldman Sachs Group

In related news, insider Brian J. Lee sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $530.90, for a total transaction of $1,061,800.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 10,095 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,359,435.50. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.57% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $520.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. JMP Securities boosted their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $525.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays increased their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $565.00 to $588.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $460.00 to $485.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 2nd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $524.69.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Performance

The Goldman Sachs Group stock traded up $4.54 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $528.82. 428,373 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,190,440. The company has a market capitalization of $167.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.07, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $300.70 and a fifty-two week high of $540.51. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $501.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $475.59.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The investment management company reported $8.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.89 by $1.51. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 11.05% and a net margin of 9.89%. The business had revenue of $12.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $5.47 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 37.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group’s payout ratio is 35.21%.

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.