The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) Price Target Lowered to $659.00 at Morgan Stanley

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) had its price target cut by Morgan Stanley from $782.00 to $659.00 in a research note released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the investment management company’s stock.

GS has been the subject of a number of other research reports. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $610.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective 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. Oppenheimer dropped their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $677.00 to $639.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Hsbc Global Res cut The Goldman Sachs Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, HSBC cut The Goldman Sachs Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $569.00 to $608.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $584.00.

The Goldman Sachs Group Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of GS stock opened at $524.24 on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group has a fifty-two week low of $383.41 and a fifty-two week high of $672.19. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $613.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $566.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $163.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.93, 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 quick ratio of 0.67 and a current 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 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 firm had revenue of $13.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.36 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $5.48 EPS. The Goldman Sachs Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that The Goldman Sachs Group will post 47.12 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 given a $3.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.29%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.59%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Treasurer Carey Halio sold 1,545 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the treasurer now directly owns 8,192 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,117,296.64. This trade represents a 15.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Alex S. Golten sold 5,208 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $636.25, for a total transaction of $3,313,590.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 3,545 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,255,506.25. This trade represents a 59.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 19,925 shares of company stock worth $12,630,683 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of The Goldman Sachs Group

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GS. Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 30,068.9% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 7,500,000 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $3,713,325,000 after purchasing an additional 7,475,140 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,584,202 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $3,761,576,000 after buying an additional 161,500 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,155,336 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $3,524,669,000 after buying an additional 112,696 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group by 23.7% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,586,348 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $2,053,614,000 after acquiring an additional 687,711 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 15.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,292,679 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $1,885,454,000 after acquiring an additional 428,502 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.21% of the company’s stock.

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.