Citizens is stepping away from Goldman Sachs for now. Analyst Devin Ryan downgraded the big bank to market perform from market outperform. He also removed his $600 price target, which implied a 14.9% decline from Friday’s close. “At $700+ today, we believe much of our thesis has played out and the bar is now much higher for another leg up,” the analyst wrote. “Accordingly, while we are bullish on the business, we see the risk/reward as balanced and we will evaluate for a new entry point or developments that change our valuation framework.” Ryan added that the last time he upgraded Goldman Sachs was in January 2020, when the stock traded at around $220. The upgrade made sense at the time, given Goldman Sachs’ rapidly growing business verticals. “We believe we had a differentiated call over the years as the company was gaining more market share in its Institutional business than we believe was widely appreciated while it had also raised more AUM than most publicly traded Alternative Asset Managers, with a substantial earnings runway ahead for that business — which we argued should also drive operating margins and return on equity higher at the firmwide level, valuation enhancing,” he wrote. Now, with the stock trading around $700, gains may be harder to come by. Shares of Goldman Sachs have rallied 23% this year. GS YTD mountain GS YTD chart Analysts are generally split on the stock. Of the 23 who cover Goldman, 10 rate it a buy or strong buy, according to LSEG. Another 12 have a hold rating on it, and one rates the stock as underperform.
