The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $3.00

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 16th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of 3.00 per share by the investment management company on Friday, March 28th. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th.

The Goldman Sachs Group has raised its dividend by an average of 21.0% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. The Goldman Sachs Group has a dividend payout ratio of 24.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect The Goldman Sachs Group to earn $43.39 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $12.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 27.7%.

The Goldman Sachs Group Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of GS stock traded up $6.25 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $612.17. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,168,288 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,406,932. The company has a market cap of $192.17 billion, a PE ratio of 17.96, a P/E/G ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.38. 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 company’s fifty day simple moving average is $585.87 and its 200-day simple moving average is $528.13. The Goldman Sachs Group has a 52 week low of $372.07 and a 52 week high of $616.84.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The investment management company reported $11.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $8.21 by $3.74. The firm 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 11.39% and a net margin of 9.89%. The company’s revenue was up 22.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $5.48 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that The Goldman Sachs Group will post 37.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at The Goldman Sachs Group

In related news, Director David A. Viniar sold 5,000 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $612.08, for a total value of $3,060,400.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 608,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $372,404,774. The trade was a 0.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO David M. Solomon sold 6,550 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $610.91, for a total value of $4,001,460.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 117,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $72,015,903.53. This trade represents a 5.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 20,940 shares of company stock valued at $12,656,179. 0.57% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $600.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Evercore ISI raised their target price 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. HSBC downgraded The Goldman Sachs Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $569.00 to $608.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Barclays raised their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $713.00 to $760.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $686.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $589.19.

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.