Goldman Sachs reported its most profitable quarter in five years amid war with Iran

Goldman Sachs reported the highest quarterly profit for the last five years, the Financial Times (FT) has noted - such results the bank recorded at the end of the first three months of 2026. The record performance of Goldman Sachs equity traders compensated for the unexpected drop in income from fixed-income transactions, the newspaper notes.

Goldman Sachs securities are nevertheless down 4% at the April 13 premarket, causing futures on the Dow Jones U.S. blue-chip index to drop nearly 1%, MarketWatch notes.

- Goldman Sachs' equity division recorded revenue of $5.33 billion in the first three months of 2026. Such results exceeded the investment bank's previous record of $4.31 billion set in the fourth quarter of last year and were 27% higher than in the first quarter of 2025, the bank said in a statement. Bloomberg notes that this quarterly figure Goldman Sachs became the highest in history among all banks.

Goldman Sachs, which was the first leading investment bank to release its quarterly results for January-March 2026 on April 13, has one of the largest market-asset divisions on Wall Street, Bloomberg explains, noting that such units often benefit from the spike in market volatility this year, which has been driven by war in the Middle East as well as concerns about artificial intelligence and private credit.

- The bank reported quarterly net revenue of $17.23 billion, which, according to FactSet, was also above analysts' forecasts of $17 billion, Barron's notes.

- In contrast, Goldman Sachs' fixed-income, currencies and commodities traders missed forecasts: in this division, the bank recorded a 10% year-on-year decline in revenue to $4 billion in the first quarter of 2026, although analysts expected to see a 10% increase in this segment.

However, even though revenue in the fixed income division was down, it was the third best quarter in its history for Goldman Sachs' trading business, the FT points out.

- Overall, Goldman Sachs recorded a net profit of $5.6 billion for the first quarter of 2026, which was 19% higher than a year earlier, and exceeded the expectations of analysts who expected to see this figure at $5.3 billion, the FT writes.

- Investment banking fees at Goldman Sachs also rose almost 50% year-on-year to $2.8bn, beating forecasts of $2.5bn, the FT notes. Investment bankers' advisory fees were up 89% year-on-year, beating expectations across the board and reflecting a rebound in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity, Bloomberg reports.

- Goldman Sachs' asset management unit said assets under management rose to $3.7 trillion in the quarter ended March 31, with net revenue in that segment up from the same period a year ago. Earlier in April, Goldman Sachs reported that one of its private credit funds had avoided large-scale investor outflows - this was due, among other things, to the fact that more than 80% of the fund's clients are institutional investors.

Since the beginning of the year, the securities of the U.S. investment bank have risen by more than 3%. In 2025, they soared by 53%, recalls Reuters. The average target of Wall Street analysts on the securities of Goldman Sachs - $ 960 per piece, which suggests their growth of 5.7% relative to the closing on April 10. Of the 28 analysts that follow the shares of the investment bank, the majority - 17 - recommend to keep them in the portfolio, nine more advise to buy (ratings Buy and Overweight), and two - to sell (Goldman Sachs securities have one rating Sell and Underweight), according to MarketWatch data.

"Trends in investment banking [in the first quarter of 2026] were favorable, with deals involving large-cap companies providing a flood of M&A transactions, while high-profile IPOs are still in line for the summer and fall," noted Argus Research banking analyst Stephen Biggar (quoted by Reuters).

In the first quarter of 2026, Goldman Sachs, the agency recalls, participated in the discussion of several major merger deals. This included advising Unilever on the merger of its food business with McCormick (a deal that could potentially create a $65 billion food giant). He also advised Equitable on its proposed partnership with Corebridge, which could create a $22 billion insurance company.

In addition, according to Reuters sources, Goldman Sachs has secured a place among the leading organizers of the expected in June large-scale IPO of Elon Musk's company SpaceX. During the initial public offering, the company could raise $75 billion at a valuation of $1.75 trillion, potentially becoming the largest listing in history.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor