Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Raises Position in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 19.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,552 shares of the investment management company’s stock after purchasing an additional 909 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $3,179,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the third quarter valued at about $206,000. Townsquare Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 30.7% during the 3rd quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 7,135 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $3,533,000 after acquiring an additional 1,675 shares during the period. Financial Counselors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. now owns 2,485 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $1,230,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. increased its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 1,240.2% in the 3rd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 4,771 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $2,362,000 after purchasing an additional 4,415 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Icon Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group by 35.8% during the third quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 482 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $239,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GS has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $605.00 to $625.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $782.00 to $659.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $690.00 to $660.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays lifted their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $713.00 to $760.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $585.00 to $550.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, The Goldman Sachs Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $590.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Kevin R. Johnson bought 2,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was bought at an average price of $619.02 per share, with a total value of $1,485,648.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,485,648. This represents a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Alex S. Golten sold 5,208 shares of the 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 approximately $2,255,506.25. This trade represents a 59.50 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 19,925 shares of company stock worth $12,630,683 over the last three months. 0.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

The Goldman Sachs Group Trading Down 2.8 %

Shares of GS stock opened at $543.04 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $608.15 and its 200-day simple moving average is $571.66. 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 Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a 1-year low of $387.12 and a 1-year high of $672.19. The firm has a market cap of $169.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.39, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.37.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last posted its quarterly 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 Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 11.32% and a return on equity of 13.30%. The company had revenue of $13.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.36 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $5.48 earnings per share. The Goldman Sachs Group’s revenue was up 22.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 47.12 EPS for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th were given a dividend of $3.00 per share. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.21%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.