Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Lowers Stock Position in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management lowered its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 25.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,247 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 425 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $481,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Truvestments Capital LLC raised its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 88.0% in the 3rd quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC now owns 94 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in The Goldman Sachs Group in the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Signature Resources Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in The Goldman Sachs Group in the 4th quarter worth about $39,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in The Goldman Sachs Group in the 4th quarter worth about $42,000. Finally, CNB Bank raised its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 55.7% in the 3rd quarter. CNB Bank now owns 165 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $53,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GS. Citigroup boosted their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $410.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Bank of America boosted their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $450.00 to $478.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded The Goldman Sachs Group from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $410.00 to $430.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. JMP Securities boosted their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $440.00 to $460.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded The Goldman Sachs Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $333.00 to $449.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $440.57.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director David A. Viniar sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 623,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $269,475,456.25. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, Director David A. Viniar sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 623,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $269,475,456.25. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Denis P. Coleman sold 12,680 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.43, for a total value of $5,001,372.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 29,417 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,602,947.31. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 29,330 shares of company stock worth $11,713,578 in the last three months. 0.57% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

The Goldman Sachs Group Trading Up 0.7 %

GS stock opened at $446.95 on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a 1-year low of $289.36 and a 1-year high of $448.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The company has a market capitalization of $145.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.45, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.40. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $406.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $377.23.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 15th. The investment management company reported $11.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $8.54 by $3.04. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 8.65% and a net margin of 8.17%. The business had revenue of $14.21 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.94 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $8.79 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 36.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 30th will be paid a $2.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 30th. This represents a $11.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.46%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s payout ratio is 42.95%.

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.