The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) Shares Acquired by Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management boosted its position in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 36.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 2,495 shares of the investment management company’s stock after purchasing an additional 673 shares during the quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $1,429,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GS. West Branch Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. DT Investment Partners LLC increased its holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group by 110.0% in the 3rd quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 63 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC purchased a new position in The Goldman Sachs Group in the third quarter valued at about $34,000. Country Trust Bank acquired a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group during the third quarter worth about $37,000. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the third quarter worth about $38,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Hsbc Global Res lowered The Goldman Sachs Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $736.00 to $782.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. UBS Group upped 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 research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $600.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of 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. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, The Goldman Sachs Group has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $591.06.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Performance

Shares of GS opened at $632.13 on Tuesday. 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 12-month low of $374.24 and a 12-month high of $645.54. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $591.21 and its 200 day moving average price is $536.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $198.43 billion, a PE ratio of 15.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.38.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last posted 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 business had revenue of $13.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.36 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 11.32% and a return on equity of 13.30%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $5.48 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 46.81 EPS for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The business 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group’s payout ratio is 29.59%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, Treasurer Carey Halio sold 1,545 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $624.67, for a total transaction of $965,115.15. Following the completion of the transaction, the treasurer now directly owns 8,192 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,117,296.64. The trade was a 15.87 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director David A. Viniar sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at $372,404,774. The trade was a 0.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 32,017 shares of company stock valued at $19,655,538. Insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

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.