Russell Investments Group Ltd. Sells 31,901 Shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. lessened its position in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 17.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 150,569 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 31,901 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $86,228,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GS. Rahlfs Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group during the fourth quarter worth approximately $401,000. Wedbush Securities Inc. grew its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 12.6% in the fourth quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. now owns 7,775 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $4,452,000 after purchasing an additional 869 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 344,597 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $197,323,000 after purchasing an additional 5,974 shares during the period. Aviva PLC raised its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 15.6% during the 4th quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 190,128 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $108,871,000 after purchasing an additional 25,714 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oarsman Capital Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Oarsman Capital Inc. now owns 5,317 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $3,045,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the period. 71.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on GS. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $625.00 to $614.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Oppenheimer lowered shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $720.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 28th. Daiwa Capital Markets lowered The Goldman Sachs Group from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $560.00 target price for the company. in a report on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $782.00 to $659.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $589.19.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, insider Alex S. Golten sold 5,208 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $636.25, for a total transaction of $3,313,590.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Treasurer Carey Halio sold 3,640 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $636.74, for a total value of $2,317,733.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the treasurer now directly owns 4,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,898,440.48. This trade represents a 44.43 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 19,925 shares of company stock valued at $12,630,683. 0.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

The Goldman Sachs Group Price Performance

Shares of GS stock opened at $469.57 on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $387.12 and a fifty-two week high of $672.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.32, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $146.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.58, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.33. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $597.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $573.37.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last released its earnings results 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 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 in the previous year, the firm earned $5.48 EPS. The Goldman Sachs Group’s revenue was up 22.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 47.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th were paid a $3.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.56%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.