The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) Short Interest Up 10.3% in August

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,870,000 shares, a growth of 10.3% from the August 15th total of 5,320,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,200,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.7 days. Approximately 1.9% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Insider Buying and Selling at The Goldman Sachs Group

In other news, Director Thomas K. Montag sold 10,000 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $505.04, for a total transaction of $5,050,400.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 12,450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,287,748. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, Director Thomas K. Montag sold 10,000 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $505.04, for a total transaction of $5,050,400.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 12,450 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,287,748. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Brian J. Lee sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $505.99, for a total value of $1,770,965.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 12,095 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,119,949.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Aveo Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 697 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $269,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the period. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,699 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $1,427,000 after buying an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management raised its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 7.3% during the 4th quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 1,918 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $740,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,120,119,000. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 189,162 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $72,973,000 after buying an additional 1,998 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on GS. Evercore ISI upped their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $475.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $504.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $360.00 to $373.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $460.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $496.44.

The Goldman Sachs Group Trading Down 0.1 %

NYSE:GS traded down $0.69 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $484.70. 1,699,245 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,251,688. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.20. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $491.10 and its 200-day moving average is $453.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $156.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.93, a P/E/G ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 1.36. The Goldman Sachs Group has a 12-month low of $289.36 and a 12-month high of $517.26.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 15th. The investment management company reported $8.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.52 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $12.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.60 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 10.56% and a net margin of 9.36%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that The Goldman Sachs Group will post 35.5 EPS for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 30th will be issued a $3.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th. This is an increase from The Goldman Sachs Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.75. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.48%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.86%.

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.