Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS)

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) was the target of some unusual options trading on Monday. Investors acquired 79,890 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 140% compared to the typical volume of 33,219 call options.

Institutional Trading of The Goldman Sachs Group

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its position in 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 valued at $20,566,005,000 after buying an additional 29,053,586 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.9% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,661,422 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $5,304,824,000 after acquiring an additional 121,676 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 4.9% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,379,900 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $2,392,124,000 after acquiring an additional 157,473 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.2% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,332,804 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $1,820,677,000 after acquiring an additional 40,125 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in the 2nd quarter worth about $2,138,031,000. 71.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on GS shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $854.00 to $828.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. HSBC increased their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $652.00 to $677.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $785.00 to $855.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $720.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $786.00.

The Goldman Sachs Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GS traded down $15.85 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $810.19. 1,096,946 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,347,062. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $787.51 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $727.33. The company has a market capitalization of $243.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.41. The Goldman Sachs Group has a 52-week low of $439.38 and a 52-week high of $841.28. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.23.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 14th. The investment management company reported $12.25 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.27 by $1.98. The business had revenue of $15.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.68 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 13.18% and a return on equity of 14.79%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 19.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $8.40 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that The Goldman Sachs Group will post 47.12 EPS for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 2nd will be given a $4.00 dividend. This represents a $16.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.50%.

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.