Investors Purchase High Volume of The Goldman Sachs Group Call Options (NYSE:GS)

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) saw unusually large options trading on Monday. Stock investors purchased 79,890 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 140% compared to the average volume of 33,219 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GS has been the topic of several recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. They set a “market perform” rating and a $785.00 target price on the stock. Evercore ISI upped their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $752.00 to $830.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. Zacks Research cut shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a “neutral” rating and set a $750.00 target price (up from $625.00) on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $756.00 to $810.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, sixteen have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, The Goldman Sachs Group presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $786.00.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Up 0.5%

GS stock opened at $815.08 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $244.47 billion, a PE ratio of 16.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a fifty day moving average of $787.80 and a 200-day moving average of $730.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.53, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.65. The Goldman Sachs Group has a one year low of $439.38 and a one year high of $841.28.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 14th. The investment management company reported $12.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $10.27 by $1.98. The firm had revenue of $15.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.68 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 13.18% and a return on equity of 15.29%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $8.40 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that The Goldman Sachs Group will post 47.12 EPS for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 2nd will be issued a $4.00 dividend. This represents a $16.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.50%.

Institutional Trading of The Goldman Sachs Group

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GS. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 617,504.5% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 29,058,291 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $20,566,005,000 after purchasing an additional 29,053,586 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.9% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,661,422 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $5,304,824,000 after buying an additional 121,676 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 4.9% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,379,900 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $2,392,124,000 after buying an additional 157,473 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.2% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,332,804 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $1,820,677,000 after buying an additional 40,125 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,138,031,000. 71.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.