Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Reduces Stake in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC reduced its position in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 4.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 113,882 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 5,357 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $65,212,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 4.6% during the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 14,562 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $6,586,000 after purchasing an additional 634 shares in the last quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC lifted its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 3.8% during the second quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 1,530 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $692,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in The Goldman Sachs Group during the second quarter valued at $26,000. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 59.1% during the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 62,161 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $28,117,000 after purchasing an additional 23,094 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI lifted its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 71.6% during the second quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI now owns 99,293 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $44,912,000 after purchasing an additional 41,446 shares in the last quarter. 71.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on GS shares. Citigroup lifted their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $485.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Bank of America boosted their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $563.00 to $575.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $736.00 to $782.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $610.00 to $640.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, JMP Securities boosted their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $525.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $591.06.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, Director Kevin R. Johnson bought 2,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $619.02 per share, with a total value of $1,485,648.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 2,400 shares in the company, valued at $1,485,648. This represents a ? increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,489 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,046,795.39. This represents a 25.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 20,940 shares of company stock valued at $12,656,179 over the last ninety days. 0.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

The Goldman Sachs Group Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of GS stock opened at $633.14 on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a 12-month low of $374.24 and a 12-month high of $635.60. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.32. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $588.56 and its 200-day moving average price is $533.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $198.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.38.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 15th. The investment management company reported $11.95 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $13.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.36 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $5.48 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 46.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a dividend of $3.00 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.90%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s payout ratio is currently 29.59%.

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.