Embree Financial Group Decreases Position in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

Embree Financial Group lowered its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 64.4% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,373 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 2,484 shares during the quarter. Embree Financial Group’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $574,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Toroso Investments LLC grew its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 23.1% during the 3rd quarter. Toroso Investments LLC now owns 4,844 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $1,567,000 after purchasing an additional 908 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 819 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $265,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,688 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $546,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 66,586 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $21,545,000 after acquiring an additional 2,174 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 206.8% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 10,377 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $3,358,000 after acquiring an additional 6,995 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on GS shares. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $410.00 to $430.00 in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $479.00 to $517.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. Argus raised shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $465.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $410.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $490.00 to $535.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $450.62.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Goldman Sachs Group Inc sold 4,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.34, for a total value of $25,360,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,981,022 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $82,299,679.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Goldman Sachs Group Inc sold 4,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.34, for a total value of $25,360,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,981,022 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $82,299,679.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director David A. Viniar sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $432.25, for a total transaction of $2,161,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 623,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $269,475,456.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:GS traded up $6.01 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $478.84. 1,944,410 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,289,395. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $456.87 and a two-hundred day moving average of $415.84. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a 52-week low of $289.36 and a 52-week high of $479.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.18, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market cap of $154.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.37.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 15th. The investment management company reported $11.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.54 by $3.04. The company had revenue of $14.21 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.94 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 8.17% and a return on equity of 8.86%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $8.79 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 36.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 30th were given a $2.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 30th. This represents a $11.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.30%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s payout ratio is presently 42.95%.

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.