First Bank & Trust Sells 68 Shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

First Bank & Trust lowered its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 5.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,080 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 68 shares during the period. First Bank & Trust’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $618,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GS. Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 10.3% during the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 123,930 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $70,965,000 after buying an additional 11,593 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Alliance boosted its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 23.7% during the 4th quarter. Wealth Alliance now owns 1,385 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $793,000 after buying an additional 265 shares in the last quarter. Sunpointe LLC boosted its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 6.5% during the 4th quarter. Sunpointe LLC now owns 540 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $309,000 after buying an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Corps Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group during the 4th quarter valued at $1,841,000. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 1,400.8% during the 4th quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 419,095 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $239,982,000 after buying an additional 391,170 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GS has been the topic of a number of research reports. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $610.00 to $640.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $686.00 to $690.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. HSBC cut shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $569.00 to $608.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $680.00 to $720.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $485.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $593.56.

The Goldman Sachs Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:GS opened at $668.02 on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $380.85 and a fifty-two week high of $672.19. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $609.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $555.95. 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 firm has a market cap of $207.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.39.

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

The Goldman Sachs Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of $3.00 per share. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.80%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group’s payout ratio is currently 29.59%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Sheara J. Fredman sold 2,034 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $627.01, for a total transaction of $1,275,338.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 6,455 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,047,349.55. The trade was a 23.96 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO David M. Solomon sold 6,550 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $610.91, for a total value of $4,001,460.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 117,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $72,015,903.53. This trade represents a 5.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 31,475 shares of company stock valued at $19,692,543 in the last quarter. 0.57% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.