The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $3.00 on March 28th

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 15th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of 3.00 per share by the investment management company on Friday, March 28th. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th.

The Goldman Sachs Group has raised its dividend payment by an average of 21.0% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. The Goldman Sachs Group has a dividend payout ratio of 23.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect The Goldman Sachs Group to earn $52.07 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 23.0%.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Performance

GS opened at $614.86 on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group has a 1-year low of $381.42 and a 1-year high of $672.19. The company has a market cap of $191.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.16, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.39. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $613.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $560.79. 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 (NYSE:GS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The investment management company reported $11.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.36 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $5.48 earnings per share. The Goldman Sachs Group’s revenue was up 22.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that The Goldman Sachs Group will post 47.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at The Goldman Sachs Group

In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, CEO David M. Solomon sold 6,550 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $610.91, for a total transaction of $4,001,460.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 117,883 shares in the company, valued at approximately $72,015,903.53. The trade was a 5.26 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Treasurer Carey Halio sold 3,640 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $636.74, for a total transaction of $2,317,733.60. Following the sale, the treasurer now directly owns 4,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,898,440.48. The trade was a 44.43 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 31,475 shares of company stock worth $19,692,543 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GS has been the subject of several research reports. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $677.00 to $639.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 3rd. HSBC downgraded The Goldman Sachs Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $569.00 to $608.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $680.00 to $720.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $485.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $593.56.

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.