Fragasso Financial Advisors Inc Increases Stock Position in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. $GS

Fragasso Financial Advisors Inc raised its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 3.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,216 shares of the investment management company’s stock after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Fragasso Financial Advisors Inc’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $2,276,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fiduciary Alliance LLC increased its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 9.1% in the 2nd quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC now owns 1,337 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $946,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New Hampshire boosted its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 11.1% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New Hampshire now owns 270 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $191,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Riversedge Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group during the 2nd quarter valued at about $258,000. Beacon Financial Group lifted its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 16.4% in the 2nd quarter. Beacon Financial Group now owns 562 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $398,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Czech National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 75,002 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $53,083,000 after acquiring an additional 3,332 shares during the last quarter. 71.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO John E. Waldron sold 9,000 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $750.51, for a total transaction of $6,754,590.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 106,268 shares in the company, valued at $79,755,196.68. The trade was a 7.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Denis P. Coleman sold 7,463 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $724.40, for a total transaction of $5,406,197.20. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 18,594 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,469,493.60. This trade represents a 28.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 38,323 shares of company stock worth $28,111,828 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.55% of the company’s stock.

The Goldman Sachs Group Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock opened at $787.29 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $238.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.35, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $730.38 and a 200-day simple moving average of $632.90. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.57. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a 12-month low of $439.38 and a 12-month high of $793.17.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 16th. The investment management company reported $10.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.82 by $1.09. The firm had revenue of $14.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.53 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 12.37% and a return on equity of 14.32%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s quarterly revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $8.62 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 47.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 29th. Investors of record on Friday, August 29th will be paid a $4.00 dividend. This represents a $16.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 29th. This is an increase from The Goldman Sachs Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $3.00. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.26%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GS has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $650.00 to $785.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. HSBC restated a “reduce” rating and issued a $627.00 target price (up from $558.00) on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $680.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Citizens Jmp reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a report on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Evercore ISI set a $715.00 price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $660.00.

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.