Sterling Investment Counsel LLC Buys New Shares in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

Sterling Investment Counsel LLC purchased a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 428 shares of the investment management company’s stock, valued at approximately $212,000.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in The Goldman Sachs Group in the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group during the second quarter worth about $27,000. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. grew its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 103.3% in the second quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 61 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Finally, West Branch Capital LLC bought a new stake in The Goldman Sachs Group in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.21% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on GS shares. UBS Group increased their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $550.00 to $560.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $565.00 to $588.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. JMP Securities increased their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $525.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $577.00 to $614.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $460.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $524.69.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, insider Brian J. Lee sold 2,000 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $530.90, for a total value of $1,061,800.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 10,095 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,359,435.50. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Performance

The Goldman Sachs Group stock traded down $0.34 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $517.96. 272,644 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,204,455. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a one year low of $289.36 and a one year high of $540.51. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $499.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $471.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.20. The company has a market cap of $167.02 billion, a PE ratio of 20.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.36.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The investment management company reported $8.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.89 by $1.51. The firm 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 10.56% and a net margin of 9.36%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.47 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 35.52 EPS for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a $3.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.32%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.86%.

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.