Goldman Sachs tops profit estimates as equities, asset and wealth management outperform

Goldman Sachs on Thursday topped expectations for fourth quarter profit as equities trading and asset and wealth management produced nearly $900 million more in revenue than expected.

Here’s what the company reported:

• Earnings: $14.01 a share, may not compare with $11.67 LSEG estimate
• Revenue: $13.45 billion, may not compare with $13.79 billion estimate

The company said profit jumped 12% from a year earlier to $4.62 billion, or $14.01 per share, on gains across its capital markets businesses.

That EPS handily topped analyst expectations, even if excluding the preannounced 46 cent per share gain from Goldman’s sale of its Apple Card business.

Revenue dipped 3% to $13.45 billion in the quarter, which the company blamed on a revenue hit from offloading the Apple Card loan portfolio to JPMorgan Chase and the early termination of its contract with the tech giant.

Goldman Sachs’s results show that, even despite the revenue hit from offloading its credit card business, the firm’s Wall Street-centric model is thriving in the current environment. High stock prices, falling interest rates, rising engagement from institutional investors and continued global turmoil that has roiled markets for commodities and currencies has proven to be a boost for investment banks.

“We continue to see high levels of client engagement across our franchise and expect momentum to accelerate in 2026, activating a flywheel of activity across our entire firm,” Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said in an earnings presentation.

Goldman can, in the near term, exceed its firmwide targets of mid-teens returns and an approximate 60% efficiency ratio thanks to the capital markets rebound and industry deregulation, the bank said.

Like JPMorgan, Goldman’s biggest source of outperformance in the quarter was from its equities franchise.

Equities trading revenue jumped 25% from a year earlier to $4.31 billion, about $610 million more than the StreetAccount estimate, as Goldman reaped more revenue from financing trades and selling derivatives to hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fixed income trading revenue climbed 12% to $3.11 billion, about $180 million more than expected, on strength in wagers tied to interest rates and commodities.

Investment banking fees jumped 25% to $2.58 billion, matching the StreetAccount estimate, fueled by gains in mergers advisory and debt underwriting. In a positive sign for the business this year, Goldman said that its backlog of deals grew at yearend compared with the end of the third quarter.

The firm’s asset and wealth management business saw revenue roughly unchanged from a year earlier at $4.72 billion, though that exceeded the StreetAccount estimate by roughly $270 million. Rising fees from its growing base of assets under management offset net losses from stakes in public equities and lower gains from private equities, the bank said.

In Goldman’s smallest business, called platform solutions, the bank posted a $1.68 billion revenue loss for the quarter, compared with $592 million in gains from a year earlier. It blamed the company’s Apple Card exit for the hit to that unit’s results.

Shares of the banked fell more than 2% in premarket trading.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.