Westwind Capital Purchases New Shares in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

Westwind Capital acquired a new position in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 220 shares of the investment management company’s stock, valued at approximately $126,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Great Lakes Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group by 39.2% in the second quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC now owns 8,754 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $3,960,000 after purchasing an additional 2,467 shares during the period. Norden Group LLC lifted its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 23.1% in the second quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 649 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $293,000 after buying an additional 122 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the 2nd quarter worth about $138,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 6,702.1% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 28,637 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $12,949,000 after purchasing an additional 28,216 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Certuity LLC boosted its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 36.7% during the 2nd quarter. Certuity LLC now owns 1,162 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $525,000 after purchasing an additional 312 shares during the period. 71.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Down 0.8 %

GS traded down $4.67 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $578.72. 1,569,233 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,829,454. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a one year low of $372.07 and a one year high of $612.73. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $579.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $522.58. 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 company has a market cap of $181.67 billion, a PE ratio of 16.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 1.38.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The investment management company reported $8.40 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.89 by $1.51. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 11.39% and a net margin of 9.89%. The company had revenue of $12.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $5.47 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 37.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd were paid a dividend of $3.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.07%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s payout ratio is 35.21%.

Insider Activity at The Goldman Sachs Group

In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, insider Brian J. Lee sold 2,000 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $530.90, for a total transaction of $1,061,800.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 10,095 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,359,435.50. The trade was a 16.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director David A. Viniar sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $612.08, for a total value of $3,060,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 608,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $372,404,774. The trade was a 0.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 22,940 shares of company stock worth $13,717,979 in the last ninety days. 0.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on GS shares. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $610.00 price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a report on Monday. Hsbc Global Res lowered The Goldman Sachs Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $560.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $570.00 to $686.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of The Goldman Sachs Group to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $569.31.

The Goldman Sachs Group 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.