The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) Stock Rating Reaffirmed by Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed their sector perform rating on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $390.00 target price on the investment management company’s stock.

Several other research firms also recently commented on GS. Oppenheimer lowered their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $506.00 to $446.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. UBS Group raised their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $382.00 to $440.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley raised The Goldman Sachs Group from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and raised their price target for the company from $333.00 to $449.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Edward Jones began coverage on The Goldman Sachs Group in a research report on Tuesday, February 27th. They issued a buy rating on the stock. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a market outperform rating and issued a $440.00 price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, The Goldman Sachs Group presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $411.10.

The Goldman Sachs Group Trading Up 0.6 %

The Goldman Sachs Group stock opened at $417.69 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.29, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The company has a market capitalization of $135.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.30, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.42. The Goldman Sachs Group has a one year low of $289.36 and a one year high of $419.20. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $389.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $357.95.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 16th. The investment management company reported $5.48 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.62 by $1.86. The firm had revenue of $11.32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.80 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 7.85% and a return on equity of 8.03%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.32 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that The Goldman Sachs Group will post 33.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 29th were paid a dividend of $2.75 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 28th. This represents a $11.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.63%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio is 48.20%.

Insider Activity at The Goldman Sachs Group

In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, insider Brian J. Lee sold 3,000 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.39, for a total transaction of $1,129,170.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 10,121 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,809,443.19. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, insider Brian J. Lee sold 3,000 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.39, for a total transaction of $1,129,170.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 10,121 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,809,443.19. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Kathryn H. Ruemmler sold 7,277 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $379.81, for a total value of $2,763,877.37. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 6,501 shares in the company, valued at $2,469,144.81. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 38,907 shares of company stock worth $15,080,021 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,337,000. Fairman Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $124,000. Napatree Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $991,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 12.0% in the 4th quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 93,677 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $36,152,000 after acquiring an additional 10,049 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Accent Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $347,000. 71.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.