Goldman Sachs on Wednesday said earnings fell by a whopping 58% in the second quarter as the Wall Street giant blamed a retreat from consumer businesses and declining investment values for its worst results in three years.
The dreadful performance still managed to fall short of Wall Street estimates — even after Goldman boss David Solomon warned analysts in the run-up to the earnings release that they should lower their expectations.
Goldman reported that it earned $3.08 a share — lower than the $3.18 analysts had predicted.
The bank’s revenue plummeted 8% to $10.9 billion, according to the report.
“This moment in the economic cycle creates meaningful headwinds for Goldman Sachs,” Solomon told analysts on a conference call. “We are making tough decisions that are driving the strategic evolution of the firm. Given both these factors, it should come as no surprise that we’re going to a period of lower results.”
Solomon did highlight seeing positive signs on the horizon in investment banking.
“It definitely feels better over the course of the last six, eight weeks,” Solomon told analysts on a conference call. “This is obviously a tough quarter,” but he added “the environment feels better.”
He cited activity picking up in equity capital markets and a revival of client discussions on mergers and acquisitions.
Goldman shares closed up 1% at $340.55.
“The bar was relatively low heading into the quarter,” wrote Citigroup analyst Keith Horowitz. “When we compare the results against our estimates, we find that core trends were generally positive,” helped by equities financing and investment banking.
The results were the bank’s worst since the second quarter of 2020, when it took writedowns over a corruption scandal linked to Malaysian state fund 1MDB.
Goldman took a $504 million hit tied to its GreenSky business, which facilitates home improvement loans to consumers, and $485 million related to its real estate investments.
Goldman agreed to acquire GreenSky for $2.2 billion in 2021 and later closed the deal at $1.7 billion.
The bank also took $615 million in credit losses including writedowns related to its consumer loans and business.
Goldman’s Marcus unit was also folded into its merged asset and wealth management arm last year, as the investment bank began pulling back from retail banking.
Goldman’s terrible quarter looked even worse compared to rivals JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley, which all reported strong earnings in the past week.
JPMorgan announced it raked in $14 billion in profit in the second quarter despite CEO Jamie Dimons dire predictions for the economy, which has been saddled with sky-high levels of inflation in recent years.
Goldman’s results are likely to ratchet up pressure on Solomon, whose leadership and management style have been called into question by partners and rank-and-file employees.
Last month, The Post was the first to report that Goldman’s board was beginning to re-evaluate Solomon in the wake of an exodus of top talent from the Wall Street firm.
Since Solomon took the helm in 2018, Goldman partners have complained over their skimpy bonuses, his costly venture into consumer banking, and his side hustle as a DJ.
With Post wires
