Covenant Asset Management LLC Sells 200 Shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

Covenant Asset Management LLC lowered its position in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 27.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 537 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 200 shares during the period. Covenant Asset Management LLC’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $307,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its position in 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 valued at $129,144,000 after buying an additional 5,541 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC increased its position in 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 valued at $21,934,000 after buying an additional 2,863 shares in the last quarter. Park Edge Advisors LLC bought a new position in The Goldman Sachs Group during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $703,000. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in 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 valued at $122,453,000 after buying an additional 49,710 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in 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 valued at $2,991,772,000 after buying an additional 161,133 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.21% of the company’s stock.

The Goldman Sachs Group Price Performance

Shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock opened at $661.56 on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a one year low of $379.14 and a one year high of $663.87. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $603.93 and its 200 day moving average is $550.81. The stock has a market cap of $205.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.31, a P/E/G ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 1.39. 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 Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The investment management company reported $11.95 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.21 by $3.74. The company had revenue of $13.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.36 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 13.30% and a net margin of 11.32%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $5.48 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 47.12 earnings per share for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a dividend of $3.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.81%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.59%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GS has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective 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. Oppenheimer cut their target price on 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $686.00 to $690.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. HSBC downgraded The Goldman Sachs Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their target price for the company from $569.00 to $608.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res downgraded The Goldman Sachs Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, The Goldman Sachs Group currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $591.06.

Insider Buying and Selling at The Goldman Sachs Group

In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, CAO Sheara J. Fredman sold 2,034 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $4,047,349.55. This trade represents a 23.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Treasurer Carey Halio sold 3,640 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $636.74, for a total value of $2,317,733.60. Following the sale, the treasurer now directly owns 4,552 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,898,440.48. This represents a 44.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have 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 company insiders.

The Goldman Sachs Group 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.