The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is a leading global bank and financial holding company, which was founded in 1869 by Marcus Goldman. The firm is headquartered in New York and maintains offices in all major financial centers around the world. It engages in “investment banking, institutional client services, investing and lending, and investment management” (“Annual Report”).
As we all know, it is very competitive in the financial service industry. Goldman Sachs has many competitors, who are “brokers and dealers, investment banking firms, commercial banks, insurance companies, investment advisers, mutual funds, hedge funds, private equity funds and merchant banks” (“Annual Report”). While many competitors have been put their emphasis on their money management operations, Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) have chosen “organic growth over growth by acquisition” (Bruno, 340). Overall, “GSAM's assets under management increased by roughly 19% for the year ended Feb. 28, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All of the firm's asset classes increased, with equity up 26%, fixed income up 19%, alternatives up 19% and money market assets up 7%” (Bruno, 340).
Goldman Sachs Group has “a 52 week low of $90.43 and a 52 week high of $159.00. The stock’s 50-day moving average is currently $144.5. The company has a market cap of $77.120 billion and a P/E ratio of 11.23” (Jones). This great success can be directly attributed to the company's sale of its stake in Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). Goldman Sachs managed “a cash inflow of $1 billion from the sale and the shares surged 2.1% immediately after the information was made public” (Jones). From this case, Goldman Sachs starts gradually to exit non-core business.
Goldman Sachs was pushed by the regulations to strengthen its capital ratios, and this case was a good start for this purpose. “There is sufficient evidence pointing toward the probability that the share price will continue to surge in the foreseeable future, therefore the 52 week high is expected to rise even higher” (Jones) .
Goldman Sachs’ successes are much due to its political connections. “White House logs show that Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein traveled to