The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) Stock Price Up 0.1% – Should You Buy?

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)’s stock price rose 0.1% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $601.53 and last traded at $594.52. Approximately 395,469 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 82% from the average daily volume of 2,221,311 shares. The stock had previously closed at $594.22.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays upped their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $565.00 to $588.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. JMP Securities boosted their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $525.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. UBS Group raised their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $550.00 to $560.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $600.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $535.75.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Performance

The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $518.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $488.35. The company has a market cap of $186.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.42, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.35. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The investment management company reported $8.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.89 by $1.51. The company had revenue of $12.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.77 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 11.39% and a net margin of 9.89%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $5.47 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 37.15 earnings per share for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a $3.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.02%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s payout ratio is currently 35.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Brian J. Lee sold 2,000 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $530.90, for a total transaction of $1,061,800.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 10,095 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,359,435.50. This trade represents a 16.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Sheara J. Fredman sold 2,974 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $594.51, for a total value of $1,768,072.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,489 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,046,795.39. This represents a 25.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,390 shares of company stock worth $6,656,119 in the last three months. 0.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of The Goldman Sachs Group

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GS. POM Investment Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in The Goldman Sachs Group during the 2nd quarter worth about $26,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the 2nd quarter worth about $27,000. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. lifted its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 103.3% in the 2nd quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 61 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the period. Finally, Quest Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 6,300.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 64 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.