The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. $GS Shares Sold by Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc.

Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. lessened its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 23,902 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 435 shares during the period. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc.’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $16,917,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GS. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 617,504.5% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 29,058,291 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $20,566,005,000 after purchasing an additional 29,053,586 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group during the 1st quarter worth about $1,766,238,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group during the 1st quarter worth about $897,185,000. Ninety One UK Ltd acquired a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group during the 2nd quarter worth about $408,780,000. Finally, Cohen Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 5,559.2% during the 1st quarter. Cohen Investment Advisors LLC now owns 470,220 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $256,876,000 after purchasing an additional 461,911 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GS has been the subject of several research analyst reports. HSBC upped their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $652.00 to $677.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $843.00 price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Daiwa Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $756.00 to $810.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $762.00 to $805.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $600.00 price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a research note on Monday, July 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, sixteen have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $779.50.

Insider Activity at The Goldman Sachs Group

In other news, COO John E. Waldron sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $750.51, for a total value of $6,754,590.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 106,268 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $79,755,196.68. This represents a 7.81% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Denis P. Coleman sold 7,463 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $724.40, for a total transaction of $5,406,197.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 18,594 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,469,493.60. This represents a 28.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 25,707 shares of company stock valued at $19,094,804. Corporate insiders own 0.55% of the company’s stock.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Performance

The Goldman Sachs Group stock opened at $759.22 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $766.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $674.16. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a 1-year low of $439.38 and a 1-year high of $825.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.23, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The stock has a market cap of $229.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.42.

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 for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $10.27 by $1.98. The Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 13.18% and a return on equity of 14.79%. The business had revenue of $11.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.68 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $8.40 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 47.12 EPS for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 2nd will be paid a $4.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 2nd. This represents a $16.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio is 32.50%.

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.