Wells Fargo & Company Has Lowered Expectations for The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) Stock Price

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) had its price target dropped by stock analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $720.00 to $680.00 in a research note issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the investment management company’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 24.02% from the stock’s current price.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on GS. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $585.00 to $550.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Barclays upped their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $713.00 to $760.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $782.00 to $659.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Oppenheimer cut shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded The Goldman Sachs Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $690.00 to $660.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $590.60.

The Goldman Sachs Group Trading Down 1.9 %

NYSE:GS traded down $10.64 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $548.28. The company had a trading volume of 281,815 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,233,858. 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 has a fifty-two week low of $387.12 and a fifty-two week high of $672.19. The firm has a market cap of $171.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.53, a P/E/G ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.37. The business’s fifty day moving average is $609.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is $570.55.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 last year, the firm earned $5.48 EPS. The Goldman Sachs Group’s quarterly revenue was up 22.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that The Goldman Sachs Group will post 47.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at The Goldman Sachs Group

In other news, insider Alex S. Golten sold 5,208 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,255,506.25. This trade represents a 59.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Treasurer Carey Halio sold 3,640 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $636.74, for a total value of $2,317,733.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the treasurer now directly owns 4,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,898,440.48. This represents a 44.43 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 19,925 shares of company stock valued at $12,630,683. 0.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On The Goldman Sachs Group

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 224,148 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $129,144,000 after purchasing an additional 5,541 shares during the period. Erste Asset Management GmbH raised its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH now owns 5,743 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $3,309,000 after acquiring an additional 320 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC lifted its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 8.1% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 38,304 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $21,934,000 after acquiring an additional 2,863 shares during the period. Atlas Legacy Advisors LLC bought a new position in The Goldman Sachs Group during the fourth quarter worth $356,000. Finally, Park Edge Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in The Goldman Sachs Group in the fourth quarter worth $703,000. Institutional investors own 71.21% of the company’s stock.

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.