First American Trust FSB Boosts Stock Position in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

First American Trust FSB increased its position in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 52.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 19,158 shares of the investment management company’s stock after buying an additional 6,597 shares during the quarter. The Goldman Sachs Group makes up about 1.1% of First American Trust FSB’s holdings, making the stock its 25th largest holding. First American Trust FSB’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $10,971,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GS. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 224,148 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $129,144,000 after purchasing an additional 5,541 shares during the period. Erste Asset Management GmbH raised its holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH now owns 5,743 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $3,309,000 after acquiring an additional 320 shares during the period. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC raised its holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group by 8.1% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 38,304 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $21,934,000 after acquiring an additional 2,863 shares during the period. Atlas Legacy Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $356,000. Finally, Park Edge Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group during the fourth quarter worth about $703,000. Institutional investors own 71.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on GS shares. UBS Group boosted their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $610.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $690.00 to $660.00 in a report on Thursday, February 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $550.00 to $605.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $585.00 to $550.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $591.93.

Insider Transactions at The Goldman Sachs Group

In other news, Treasurer Carey Halio sold 1,545 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $624.67, for a total value of $965,115.15. Following the transaction, the treasurer now directly owns 8,192 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,117,296.64. This represents a 15.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Alex S. Golten sold 5,208 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $636.25, for a total transaction of $3,313,590.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 3,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,255,506.25. The trade was a 59.50 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 19,925 shares of company stock worth $12,630,683. 0.54% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Performance

NYSE:GS opened at $581.12 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $181.33 billion, a PE ratio of 14.33, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.37. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $611.24 and its 200 day moving average is $569.86. 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 Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The investment management company reported $11.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $8.21 by $3.74. The business had revenue of $13.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.36 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 11.32% and a return on equity of 13.30%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $5.48 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 47.12 earnings per share for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a dividend of $3.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.06%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio is 29.59%.

The Goldman Sachs Group Company 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.