Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs (GS) has reported first-quarter 2026 financial results that beat the consensus forecasts of analysts.
For the first three months of the year, Goldman Sachs posted earnings per share (EPS) of $17.55 U.S., which topped the $16.49 U.S. expected among analysts.
Revenue in the period totaled $17.23 billion U.S., which was ahead of the $16.97 billion U.S. forecast on Wall Street. Sales were up 14% from a year earlier.
Management at Goldman Sachs said the bank benefitted from several strong trends during the first quarter.
These included trading desks performing strong as institutional investors set new positions and rotated out of technology stocks in favour of value stocks and consumer staples.
In fact, Goldman Sachs reported its highest-ever revenue quarter from equities trading. Revenue from stock trading rose 27% to $5.33 billion U.S. in Q1 of this year.
Executives at Goldman Sachs added that the earnings also got a boost as investment banking continued to rebound, with revenue for the industry rising 10% year-over-year in the quarter.
As a pure play investment bank, Goldman Sachs derives most of its revenue from stock trading and investment banking activities such as mergers and acquisitions and initial public offerings.
Disruptive events that impact the price of commodities and stocks, such as the Iran war, often lead to churn that can result in greater trading revenues for banks such as Goldman Sachs.
GS stock has gained 80% over the past 12 months to trade at $907.80 U.S. per share.
