Ascent Wealth Partners LLC Has $3.98 Million Stock Holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

Ascent Wealth Partners LLC cut its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 0.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,955 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 33 shares during the period. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $3,983,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GS. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. raised its holdings 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 worth $129,144,000 after buying an additional 5,541 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC raised its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 8.1% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 38,304 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $21,934,000 after buying an additional 2,863 shares in the last quarter. Park Edge Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group during the 4th quarter worth $703,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 30.3% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 213,605 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $122,453,000 after buying an additional 49,710 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,042,640 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $2,991,772,000 after buying an additional 161,133 shares in the last quarter. 71.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on GS shares. HSBC cut The Goldman Sachs Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $569.00 to $608.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $550.00 to $605.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $736.00 to $782.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Barclays boosted their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $713.00 to $760.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $677.00 to $639.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $593.56.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Down 2.6 %

GS stock opened at $625.70 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $611.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $558.32. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $381.42 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 company has a market cap of $195.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.39.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The investment management company reported $11.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.21 by $3.74. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 13.30% and a net margin of 11.32%. The business had revenue of $13.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.36 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $5.48 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 47.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.59%.

Insider Transactions at The Goldman Sachs Group

In other news, Treasurer Carey Halio sold 1,545 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $624.67, for a total value of $965,115.15. Following the completion of the sale, the treasurer now directly owns 8,192 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,117,296.64. This represents a 15.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO David M. Solomon sold 6,550 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $610.91, for a total value of $4,001,460.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 117,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $72,015,903.53. This trade represents a 5.26 % 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 over the last ninety days. 0.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.