Goldman Sachs on Monday posted first quarter results that topped expectations on record equities trading results and higher-than-expected investment banking revenue.
The bank said profit climbed 19% from the year-earlier quarter to $5.63 billion, or $17.55 per share. Revenue climbed 14% to $17.23 billion.
Trading desks across Wall Street were busy at the start of the year as institutional investors set new positions against the churn of AI-led disruption in markets. For Goldman, that resulted in its biggest quarter from equities trading, helping propel the overall firm to its second-highest quarterly revenue.
Equities revenue rose 27% to $5.33 billion, or about $420 million more than the StreetAccount estimate, on rising financing activity to hedge fund clients in its prime brokerage business, as well as matching buyers and sellers in cash equities products.
Investment banking fees climbed 48% to $2.84 billion, about $340 million more than expected, on a surge in advisory revenues from completed mergers transactions. The firm also cited higher revenue in equity and debt underwriting.
But the firm's fixed income operations didn't fare as well. Revenues there fell 10% to $4.01 billion, a miss of roughly $910 million from the StreetAccount estimate. Goldman cited "significantly lower" revenues in interest rate products, mortgages and credit for the miss.
For Goldman Sachs, which gets most of its revenue from its trading and investment banking franchise, the main question analysts will have is about the impact of the Iran war that started on Feb. 28.
Disruptive events that impact the price of commodities — like the Iran conflict has — can sometimes force corporate clients to the sidelines, meaning a delay in mergers activity might have started. At the same time, the churn can lead to greater trading revenues thanks to moves in interest rates, bond prices and currencies.
