Valmark Advisers Inc. Buys New Shares in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. $GS

Valmark Advisers Inc. bought a new stake in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 327 shares of the investment management company’s stock, valued at approximately $231,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Armbruster Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the second quarter valued at $215,000. LifeSteps Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the second quarter valued at $244,000. Detalus Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the second quarter valued at $218,000. Winthrop Advisory Group LLC grew its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 3.4% in the second quarter. Winthrop Advisory Group LLC now owns 429 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $303,000 after buying an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NBT Bank N A NY grew its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 6.3% in the second quarter. NBT Bank N A NY now owns 9,876 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $6,990,000 after buying an additional 583 shares in the last quarter. 71.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $600.00 price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a research report on Monday, July 14th. HSBC lifted their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $652.00 to $677.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $706.00 to $854.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $785.00 to $855.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $550.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $727.31.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO David M. Solomon sold 6,608 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $712.31, for a total value of $4,706,944.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 126,176 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $89,876,426.56. The trade was a 4.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP John F.W. Rogers sold 6,008 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $717.39, for a total value of $4,310,079.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 65,761 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,176,283.79. This trade represents a 8.37% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 38,323 shares of company stock worth $28,111,828 in the last ninety days. 0.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Down 1.9%

GS opened at $765.14 on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $439.38 and a fifty-two week high of $825.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.57, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.67. The company has a market capitalization of $231.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.42. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $760.79 and a 200-day moving average of $662.32.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 16th. The investment management company reported $10.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.82 by $1.09. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 14.32% and a net margin of 12.37%.The company had revenue of $14.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.53 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $8.62 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 47.12 EPS for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Investors of record on Friday, August 29th were paid a $4.00 dividend. This represents a $16.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. This is a boost from The Goldman Sachs Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $3.00. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group’s payout ratio is presently 35.26%.

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.