Goldman Sachs 2Q profit, revenue beat expectations

Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs released better-than-expected second-quarter numbers on Tuesday.

Goldman posted second-quarter net income of $1.82bn or $3.72 a share, up from $1.05bn or $1.98 the year before. This was ahead of analysts’ expectations of earnings of $3 a share.

Meanwhile, revenue declined to $7.93bn from $9.07bn, versus expectations of $7.58bn.

Chairman and chief executive officer Lloyd C. Blankfein said: “Despite the uncertainty created by Brexit, we achieved solid results by continuing to serve our clients across our diversified franchise and by managing our business efficiently."

Net revenues in investment banking fell 11% compared to the second quarter of last year to $1.79bn, but were up 22% on the first quarter of 2016. Goldman said its investment banking transaction backlog decreased compared with both the end of the first quarter of 2016 and the end of the second quarter of 2015.

Net revenues in institutional client services were up 2% from the second quarter of 2015 at $3.68bn, while net revenues in fixed income, currency and commodities client execution were 20% higher at $1.93bn thanks to significantly higher net revenues in currencies and credit products, as well as higher net revenues in interest rate products and commodities.

Goldman's return on equity – which gauges a bank’s profitability – came in at 8.7% for the second quarter of 2016 and 7.5% for the first half.

GS shares were 0.7% lower in pre-market trade, at $163.33.