The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) Hits New 12-Month High – What’s Next?

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $843.26 and last traded at $839.8230, with a volume of 352116 shares. The stock had previously closed at $836.57.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GS has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Dbs Bank raised their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $800.00 to $890.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $850.00 to $870.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 17th. Barclays raised their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $720.00 to $850.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 15th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $854.00 to $828.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $762.00 to $805.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, sixteen have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, The Goldman Sachs Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $786.00.

The Goldman Sachs Group Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.53, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $788.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $730.83. The company has a market cap of $251.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.36.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 14th. The investment management company reported $12.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $10.27 by $1.98. The firm had revenue of $15.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.68 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 13.18% and a return on equity of 15.29%. The company’s revenue was up 19.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $8.40 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 47.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 2nd will be given a dividend of $4.00 per share. This represents a $16.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.50%.

Institutional Trading of The Goldman Sachs Group

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GS. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 617,504.5% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 29,058,291 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $20,566,005,000 after purchasing an additional 29,053,586 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,661,422 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $5,304,824,000 after purchasing an additional 121,676 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,379,900 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $2,392,124,000 after acquiring an additional 157,473 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,332,804 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $1,820,677,000 after acquiring an additional 40,125 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in The Goldman Sachs Group during the second quarter worth $2,138,031,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.21% of the company’s stock.

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.