The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) Given Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by Brokerages

Shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS - Get Free Report) have received a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the eighteen brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $495.94.

GS has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $504.00 to $559.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $504.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed 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. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $490.00 to $535.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $485.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, June 27th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, Director Thomas K. Montag sold 10,000 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $505.04, for a total value of $5,050,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 12,450 shares in the company, valued at $6,287,748. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, Director Thomas K. Montag sold 10,000 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $505.04, for a total value of $5,050,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 12,450 shares in the company, valued at $6,287,748. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Goldman Sachs Group Inc sold 4,000,000 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.34, for a total transaction of $25,360,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 12,981,022 shares of the company's stock, valued at $82,299,679.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 4,013,500 shares of company stock worth $32,181,365. 0.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On The Goldman Sachs Group

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in The Goldman Sachs Group during the first quarter worth $1,903,374,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in The Goldman Sachs Group during the fourth quarter worth $1,120,119,000. AMF Tjanstepension AB boosted its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 1,102.4% during the second quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 810,836 shares of the investment management company's stock worth $366,780,000 after buying an additional 743,402 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 27.0% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,184,196 shares of the investment management company's stock worth $842,597,000 after buying an additional 464,954 shares in the last quarter. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 7,932.6% during the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 444,285 shares of the investment management company's stock worth $200,959,000 after buying an additional 438,754 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.21% of the company's stock.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Up 0.6 %

NYSE GS traded up $3.15 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $510.25. 1,839,000 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,274,770. The Goldman Sachs Group has a 12 month low of $289.36 and a 12 month high of $517.26. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $161.14 billion, a PE ratio of 19.92, a PEG ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a 50 day moving average of $485.69 and a two-hundred day moving average of $444.90.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 15th. The investment management company reported $8.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $8.52 by $0.10. The Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 9.36% and a return on equity of 10.56%. The company had revenue of $12.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.60 billion. As a group, equities analysts expect that The Goldman Sachs Group will post 35.07 earnings per share for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Investors of record on Friday, August 30th will be issued a dividend of $3.00 per share. This is a boost from The Goldman Sachs Group's previous quarterly dividend of $2.75. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 42.95%.

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.