Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s profit plunged as the Wall Street giant notched one of its weakest quarters under Chief Executive Officer David Solomon.
Earnings fell 58% on an investment-banking slump, real estate markdowns and a goodwill writedown in the consumer business, which houses the GreenSky lending business. Return on equity, a key measure of profitability, slid to 4% in the quarter — the worst among the top US banks.
The firm had been actively tamping down expectations heading into the report, prompting analysts to slash their estimates for quarterly profit by almost half since mid-June. Shares of the company fell 1% in early New York trading.
Goldman’s management has been working to smooth the firm’s sometimes volatile quarterly results, which featured big gains during the post-pandemic boom followed by a run of missed profitability goals. Investors are looking to see whether the second quarter represents a trough for the New York-based company, with a steadier run of earnings gains ahead.
Equities trading was one bright spot, coming in ahead of its major rivals at $3 billion in revenue, compared with estimates for $2.47 billion.
Goldman’s asset-and wealth-management business posted revenue of $3.05 billion, down 4% from a year earlier. Analysts predicted revenue of $3.5 billion for the division. The unit was buffeted by the bank’s exposure to the real estate sector, with writedowns both on its lending portfolio and its equity investments contributing to a $1.15 billion pretax earnings hit tied to its principal investments.
Unlike most of its major competitors, Goldman has aggressively used its own balance sheet to make investments, a strategy that can lead to big swings in results. The firm has been looking to rely more on fees from investing money for other institutions.
The bank also reported a jump in operating expenses due to how it accounts for impairments tied to some of its consolidated real estate investments as well as the goodwill writedown. The impairments totaled about $1 billion.
The bank has been pursuing a sale of the GreenSky business just over a year after completing its purchase — one of the most visible signs of how dramatically management has backtracked on the pursuit of its retail-banking strategy in the past year.
Other key results:
- Fixed-income traders brought in $2.71 billion, down 26%. Expectations were for $2.81 billion.
- Investment-banking revenue of $1.43 billion fell short of analysts’ average estimate of $1.51 billion. Equity underwriting climbed from a year earlier and advisory fees plunged. Bankers have cautioned that even when dealmaking rebounds, the low volume of announced mergers so far this year could keep the pressure on through the rest of the year.
- Revenue dropped 8% to $10.9 billion, compared to analyst estimates of $10.5 billion.
- Total assets under supervision increased to a record $2.71 trillion, up from $2.67 trillion as of March 31.
