Argent Advisors Inc. Has $1.49 Million Stock Position in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

Argent Advisors Inc. trimmed its position in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 7.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,606 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 211 shares during the quarter. Argent Advisors Inc.’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $1,492,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in The Goldman Sachs Group during the 4th quarter valued at $624,844,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 14,007.0% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,059,716 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $606,815,000 after purchasing an additional 1,052,204 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 21.9% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,898,637 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $1,435,144,000 after purchasing an additional 521,054 shares during the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC raised its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 1,400.8% during the 4th quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 419,095 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $239,982,000 after purchasing an additional 391,170 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 154.7% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 414,867 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $205,403,000 after purchasing an additional 251,972 shares during the last quarter. 71.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Hsbc Global Res cut shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their target price for the company from $690.00 to $660.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $485.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $782.00 to $659.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $594.27.

The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Up 1.9 %

GS opened at $551.60 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $612.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $567.52. 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, Inc. has a twelve month low of $383.41 and a twelve month high of $672.19. The firm has a market cap of $172.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.60, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.37.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The investment management company reported $11.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $8.21 by $3.74. The Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 11.32% and a return on equity of 13.30%. The business had revenue of $13.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.36 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $5.48 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 22.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 47.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a dividend of $3.00 per share. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.18%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.59%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, Treasurer Carey Halio sold 1,545 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $624.67, for a total transaction of $965,115.15. Following the sale, the treasurer now owns 8,192 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,117,296.64. This represents a 15.87 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Alex S. Golten sold 5,208 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $636.25, for a total transaction of $3,313,590.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 3,545 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,255,506.25. This represents a 59.50 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 19,925 shares of company stock valued at $12,630,683 in the last 90 days. 0.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.