Covenant Asset Management LLC Decreases Stake in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

Covenant Asset Management LLC reduced its position in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 27.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 537 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 200 shares during the period. Covenant Asset Management LLC’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $307,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GS. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 224,148 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $129,144,000 after acquiring an additional 5,541 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC increased its stake 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 worth $21,934,000 after acquiring an additional 2,863 shares during the last quarter. Park Edge Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $703,000. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 30.3% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 213,605 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $122,453,000 after buying an additional 49,710 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 2.7% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,042,640 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $2,991,772,000 after buying an additional 161,133 shares during the last quarter. 71.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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, CAO Sheara J. Fredman sold 2,034 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $627.01, for a total value of $1,275,338.34. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 6,455 shares in the company, valued at $4,047,349.55. This represents a 23.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 31,475 shares of company stock valued at $19,692,543. Company insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Performance

Shares of GS stock opened at $661.56 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $205.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 1.39. 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 business has a fifty day moving average of $603.93 and a 200 day moving average of $550.81. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $379.14 and a 1 year high of $663.87.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The investment management company reported $11.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.21 by $3.74. The company had revenue of $13.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.36 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 13.30% and a net margin of 11.32%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 22.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $5.48 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 47.12 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of $3.00 per share. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.81%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.59%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on GS shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $550.00 to $605.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Hsbc Global Res cut The Goldman Sachs Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. HSBC cut The Goldman Sachs Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $569.00 to $608.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $686.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $485.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $591.06.

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.