Everence Capital Management Inc. Cuts Stock Holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

Everence Capital Management Inc. reduced its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 14.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,730 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 1,530 shares during the period. Everence Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $4,999,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of GS. Procyon Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 830 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $411,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management raised its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 19.9% during the third quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 4,582 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $2,268,000 after purchasing an additional 761 shares in the last quarter. Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in The Goldman Sachs Group during the second quarter valued at $5,529,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,042,640 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $2,991,772,000 after buying an additional 161,133 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 364,276 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $180,357,000 after buying an additional 7,644 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GS has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $600.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Barclays raised their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $565.00 to $588.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 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 report on Friday. Hsbc Global Res downgraded The Goldman Sachs Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $560.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, The Goldman Sachs Group presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $558.38.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Up 0.1 %

NYSE:GS traded up $0.68 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $575.65. 422,594 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,294,089. The stock has a market capitalization of $180.70 billion, a PE ratio of 16.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 1.38. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a 12-month low of $372.07 and a 12-month high of $612.73. 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $576.91 and a two-hundred day moving average of $519.89.

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 the consensus estimate of $6.89 by $1.51. The company had revenue of $12.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.77 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 9.89% and a return on equity of 11.39%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s revenue was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $5.47 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 37.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd were paid a $3.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.08%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.21%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director David A. Viniar sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $612.08, for a total value of $3,060,400.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 608,425 shares in the company, valued at $372,404,774. This represents a 0.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Brian J. Lee sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $530.90, for a total value of $1,061,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 10,095 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,359,435.50. This represents a 16.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 22,940 shares of company stock valued at $13,717,979. 0.54% of the stock is 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.