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

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, October 11th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a dividend of 3.00 per share by the investment management company on Monday, December 30th. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd.

The Goldman Sachs Group has raised its dividend payment by an average of 28.1% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. The Goldman Sachs Group has a dividend payout ratio of 28.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect The Goldman Sachs Group to earn $42.65 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 28.1%.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock opened at $608.57 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $540.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $499.44. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.32. The Goldman Sachs Group has a twelve month low of $340.09 and a twelve month high of $612.73. The stock has a market cap of $191.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.35.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The investment management company reported $8.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.89 by $1.51. The company had revenue of $12.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.77 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 11.39% and a net margin of 9.89%. The company’s revenue was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $5.47 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that The Goldman Sachs Group will post 37.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GS has been the subject of several analyst reports. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $520.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $560.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $600.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $472.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res downgraded The Goldman Sachs Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $550.63.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, EVP John F.W. Rogers sold 6,416 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $596.36, for a total value of $3,826,245.76. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 57,614 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,358,685.04. This trade represents a 10.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Sheara J. Fredman sold 2,974 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $594.51, for a total transaction of $1,768,072.74. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,489 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,046,795.39. This trade represents a 25.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 11,390 shares of company stock worth $6,656,119 over the last quarter. 0.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

The Goldman Sachs Group Company Profile

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.