The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $3.00

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 16th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a dividend of 3.00 per share by the investment management company on Friday, March 28th. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.91%. 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% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 13 years. The Goldman Sachs Group has a payout ratio of 24.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect The Goldman Sachs Group to earn $43.39 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 27.7%.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Up 2.3 %

Shares of GS opened at $626.84 on Friday. 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 has a 52 week low of $372.07 and a 52 week high of $627.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $196.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.39, a PEG ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.38. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $586.47 and a 200-day moving average of $528.71.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The investment management company reported $11.95 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $8.21 by $3.74. The firm had revenue of $13.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.36 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 11.39% and a net margin of 9.89%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 22.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $5.48 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Goldman Sachs Group will post 37.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, CAO Sheara J. Fredman sold 2,974 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $594.51, for a total transaction of $1,768,072.74. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,489 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,046,795.39. The trade was a 25.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director David A. Viniar sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $612.08, for a total transaction of $3,060,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 608,425 shares in the company, valued at $372,404,774. This trade represents a 0.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 20,940 shares of company stock worth $12,656,179. Company insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on GS. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $610.00 target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a report on Monday, January 6th. HSBC cut shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $569.00 to $608.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $686.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Evercore ISI upped their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $520.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $550.00 to $605.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $589.19.

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.