The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $3.00 (NYSE:GS)

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 15th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a dividend of 3.00 per share by the investment management company on Friday, March 28th. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th.

The Goldman Sachs Group has increased its dividend payment by an average of 21.0% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 13 years. The Goldman Sachs Group has a dividend payout ratio of 23.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect The Goldman Sachs Group to earn $52.07 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $12.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 23.0%.

The Goldman Sachs Group Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock opened at $614.86 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $191.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.39. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $613.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $560.79. The Goldman Sachs Group has a 52-week low of $381.42 and a 52-week high of $672.19. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.32.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 15th. The investment management company reported $11.95 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $8.21 by $3.74. The business had revenue of $13.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $5.48 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that The Goldman Sachs Group will post 47.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, CAO Sheara J. Fredman sold 2,034 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $627.01, for a total transaction 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Alex S. Golten sold 5,208 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $636.25, for a total value of $3,313,590.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 3,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,255,506.25. This represents a 59.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 31,475 shares of company stock valued at $19,692,543 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on GS. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $686.00 to $690.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. UBS Group increased their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $610.00 to $640.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Oppenheimer cut their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $677.00 to $639.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $736.00 to $782.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $680.00 to $720.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $593.56.

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.