The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) Short Interest Update

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,780,000 shares, a growth of 7.9% from the September 30th total of 4,430,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,970,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.4 days. Approximately 1.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Insider Transactions at The Goldman Sachs Group

In related news, insider Brian J. Lee sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $530.90, for a total transaction of $1,061,800.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 10,095 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,359,435.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of The Goldman Sachs Group

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group during the second quarter valued at about $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group during the second quarter valued at about $26,000. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group during the second quarter valued at about $27,000. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. lifted its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 103.3% during the second quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 61 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. Finally, West Branch Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group during the third quarter valued at about $30,000. 71.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GS has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $577.00 to $614.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $550.00 to $560.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $555.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $472.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, The Goldman Sachs Group has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $524.69.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock opened at $517.63 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.07, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The Goldman Sachs Group has a 1 year low of $300.70 and a 1 year high of $540.51. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $502.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $476.22. The stock has a market cap of $163.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.19, a PEG ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 1.36.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The investment management company reported $8.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.89 by $1.51. The Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 9.89% and a return on equity of 11.05%. The company had revenue of $12.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $5.47 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that The Goldman Sachs Group will post 37.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be issued a dividend of $3.00 per share. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.32%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group’s payout ratio is 35.21%.

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.