The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) Raises Dividend to $3.00 Per Share

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, July 12th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 30th will be paid a dividend of 3.00 per share by the investment management company on Friday, September 27th. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.39%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 30th. This is a positive change from The Goldman Sachs Group's previous quarterly dividend of $2.75.

The Goldman Sachs Group has raised its dividend by an average of 28.1% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. The Goldman Sachs Group has a dividend payout ratio of 28.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect The Goldman Sachs Group to earn $41.40 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 29.0%.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:GS traded down $4.13 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $503.13. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,564,179 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,281,627. The company has a 50-day moving average of $482.53 and a 200-day moving average of $442.26. The Goldman Sachs Group has a 12 month low of $289.36 and a 12 month high of $517.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.97, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market cap of $162.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.65, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.37.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, July 15th. The investment management company reported $8.62 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 10.26%. The company had revenue of $12.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $12.60 billion. On average, sell-side analysts expect that The Goldman Sachs Group will post 36.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays raised their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $493.00 to $565.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $490.00 to $535.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $485.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $504.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $495.94.

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.