Financial Counselors Inc. Has $1.79 Million Stock Position in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

Financial Counselors Inc. lifted its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 25.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 3,119 shares of the investment management company’s stock after purchasing an additional 634 shares during the quarter. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $1,786,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Stephens Consulting LLC acquired a new stake in The Goldman Sachs Group during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Asset Planning Inc bought a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Curio Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Truvestments Capital LLC bought a new stake in The Goldman Sachs Group in the third quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, Whipplewood Advisors LLC acquired a new position in The Goldman Sachs Group in the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. 71.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Kevin R. Johnson purchased 2,400 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $619.02 per share, for a total transaction of $1,485,648.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,485,648. This trade represents a ? increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Alex S. Golten sold 5,208 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $636.25, for a total value of $3,313,590.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 3,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,255,506.25. This represents a 59.50 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 19,925 shares of company stock valued at $12,630,683. 0.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GS has been the topic of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $782.00 to $659.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. UBS Group upped their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $610.00 to $640.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut The Goldman Sachs Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $690.00 to $660.00 in a report on Thursday, February 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $605.00 to $625.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Oppenheimer cut shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $593.27.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Performance

GS stock opened at $559.47 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $609.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $570.55. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $387.12 and a fifty-two week high of $672.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.32, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $174.58 billion, a PE ratio of 13.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.37.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The investment management company reported $11.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.21 by $3.74. The company had revenue of $13.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.36 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 13.30% and a net margin of 11.32%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 22.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $5.48 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 47.12 EPS for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of $3.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.14%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s payout ratio is presently 29.59%.

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.