ING Groep NV Purchases 13,456 Shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

ING Groep NV grew its position in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) by 2,869.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 13,925 shares of the investment management company’s stock after acquiring an additional 13,456 shares during the quarter. ING Groep NV’s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $7,974,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Aspect Partners LLC increased its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 71.8% in the 4th quarter. Aspect Partners LLC now owns 122 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Zullo Investment Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Zullo Investment Group Inc. now owns 2,575 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $1,475,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. Boston Financial Mangement LLC purchased a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $205,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 10.3% in the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 123,930 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $70,965,000 after purchasing an additional 11,593 shares during the period. Finally, Wealth Alliance boosted its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 23.7% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Alliance now owns 1,385 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $793,000 after purchasing an additional 265 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.21% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, Director David A. Viniar sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $612.08, for a total transaction of $3,060,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 608,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $372,404,774. This trade represents a 0.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Alex S. Golten sold 5,208 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $636.25, for a total value of $3,313,590.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 3,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,255,506.25. This represents a 59.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 31,475 shares of company stock valued at $19,692,543 over the last quarter. 0.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GS has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $686.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $736.00 to $782.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Citigroup upped their target price on The Goldman Sachs Group from $485.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. HSBC cut The Goldman Sachs Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $569.00 to $608.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Oppenheimer reduced their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $677.00 to $639.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $593.56.

The Goldman Sachs Group Price Performance

NYSE:GS opened at $625.70 on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a one year low of $381.42 and a one year high of $672.19. 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 stock has a market cap of $195.24 billion, a PE ratio of 15.43, a P/E/G ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.39. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $611.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $557.71.

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

The Goldman Sachs Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a dividend of $3.00 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.92%. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.59%.

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.