358 Shares in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) Acquired by Howard Financial Services LTD.

Howard Financial Services LTD. acquired a new stake in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 358 shares of the investment management company’s stock, valued at approximately $205,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GS. Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in The Goldman Sachs Group in the second quarter valued at about $26,000. West Branch Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. DT Investment Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 110.0% during the 3rd quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 63 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC grew its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 6,300.0% during the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 64 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Truvestments Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the third quarter worth $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on GS shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $686.00 to $690.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. HSBC downgraded The Goldman Sachs Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $569.00 to $608.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $550.00 to $605.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Citigroup lifted their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $485.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, 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. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $589.19.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP John F.W. Rogers sold 6,416 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $596.36, for a total value of $3,826,245.76. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 57,614 shares in the company, valued at $34,358,685.04. This represents a 10.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director David A. Viniar sold 5,000 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $612.08, for a total value of $3,060,400.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 608,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $372,404,774. The trade was a 0.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 20,940 shares of company stock worth $12,656,179 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Up 2.3 %

GS opened at $626.84 on Friday. 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 $372.07 and a 12 month high of $627.00. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $587.22 and its 200 day moving average price is $529.85. The stock has a market cap of $196.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.39, a P/E/G ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.38.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The investment management company reported $11.95 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.21 by $3.74. The company had revenue of $13.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.36 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 11.39% and a net margin of 9.89%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $5.48 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 37.24 earnings per share for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Dividend Announcement

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 paid a $3.00 dividend. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.91%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.21%.

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.