The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) Shares Purchased by Empirical Asset Management LLC

Empirical Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 3,902.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 44,906 shares of the investment management company’s stock after buying an additional 43,784 shares during the quarter. Empirical Asset Management LLC’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $25,714,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Waddell & Associates LLC grew its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Waddell & Associates LLC now owns 896 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $444,000 after purchasing an additional 18 shares in the last quarter. Wescott Financial Advisory Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Wescott Financial Advisory Group LLC now owns 2,719 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $1,346,000 after acquiring an additional 18 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New Hampshire grew its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New Hampshire now owns 243 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $139,000 after acquiring an additional 18 shares in the last quarter. First Pacific Financial grew its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. First Pacific Financial now owns 3,167 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $1,568,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Krane Funds Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Krane Funds Advisors LLC now owns 1,177 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $583,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. 71.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on GS shares. Oppenheimer lowered their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $677.00 to $639.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $610.00 price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $485.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $713.00 to $760.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $589.19.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director David A. Viniar sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $612.08, for a total transaction of $3,060,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 608,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $372,404,774. This represents a 0.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Sheara J. Fredman sold 2,974 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $594.51, for a total transaction of $1,768,072.74. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,489 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,046,795.39. This represents a 25.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 20,940 shares of company stock worth $12,656,179. Company insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Performance

NYSE GS opened at $612.17 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $192.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.96, a PEG ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.38. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $585.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $528.13. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $372.07 and a twelve month high of $616.84. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.32.

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 firm had revenue of $13.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.36 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 9.89% and a return on equity of 11.39%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $5.48 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 37.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a $3.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.96%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.21%.

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.