The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) Short Interest Update

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 5,050,000 shares, an increase of 5.4% from the November 15th total of 4,790,000 shares. Approximately 1.6% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 2,050,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.5 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI upped their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $520.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. JMP Securities upped their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $525.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $485.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective 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, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $565.00 to $588.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $559.75.

The Goldman Sachs Group Price Performance

NYSE:GS opened at $574.68 on Wednesday. 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 has a one year low of $372.07 and a one year high of $612.73. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $564.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $510.78. The stock has a market cap of $180.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.86, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.38.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The investment management company reported $8.40 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.89 by $1.51. The Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 9.89% and a return on equity of 11.39%. The business had revenue of $12.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $5.47 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that The Goldman Sachs Group will post 37.06 earnings per share for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a $3.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.09%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s payout ratio is 35.21%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Sheara J. Fredman sold 2,974 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were 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 owns 8,489 shares in the company, valued at $5,046,795.39. The trade was a 25.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Brian J. Lee sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 10,095 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,359,435.50. This represents a 16.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 22,940 shares of company stock worth $13,717,979. 0.57% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On The Goldman Sachs Group

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 30,068.9% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 7,500,000 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $3,713,325,000 after acquiring an additional 7,475,140 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group by 21.9% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,898,637 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $1,435,144,000 after purchasing an additional 521,054 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group by 7,932.6% during the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 444,285 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $200,959,000 after purchasing an additional 438,754 shares during the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. grew its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 878.8% during the second quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 397,082 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $179,608,000 after buying an additional 356,512 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 154.7% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 414,867 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $205,403,000 after buying an additional 251,972 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.21% of the company’s stock.

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.