Goldman's equities desk drives a 39% jump in earnings

Haverhill Financial Research · News · October 13, 2026

Goldman Sachs earned $17.01 a share in the third quarter, up 39% from $12.25 a year earlier, on net revenues of $18.68 billion, up 23%. Analysts had expected about $12.86 a share, according to FactSet. Most of the growth came from one desk: Equities, where revenue rose 72% to $6.44 billion, $2.7 billion more than a year earlier and most of the firm's $3.5 billion revenue increase. Fixed income trading was flat, investment banking fees grew 21%, and Platform Solutions revenue fell 72%, which Goldman attributes mainly to markdowns on the Apple Card loans it is exiting.

Equities did the heavy lifting. The $6.44 billion is the second-best quarter in the chart above, behind only the second quarter's $7.42 billion, and up 72% from $3.74 billion a year earlier. Equities covers both trading and lending to hedge funds and other investors, and Goldman's presentation lists Equities financing among the quarter's records.

Fixed income did not join in. FICC revenue of $3.47 billion was essentially unchanged from a year earlier and down from $4.59 billion in the second quarter.

Dealmaking kept improving. Investment banking fees rose 21% to $3.22 billion, and the presentation counts Advisory, at $1.65 billion, as a record. Goldman also says its investment banking backlog fell from the end of June. In our view, that makes the fourth quarter harder to match.

Wealth and asset management grew steadily. Revenue rose 14% to $5.05 billion, and Goldman reports a record $4.10 trillion of assets under supervision.

Goldman returned $4.49 billion to common shareholders in the quarter: $3.00 billion of share buybacks, 2.9 million shares at an average of $1,048.73, and $1.49 billion of dividends. It declared a dividend of $5.00 a share, payable December 30 to holders of record on December 2.

Chief executive David Solomon said clients "continued to turn to Goldman Sachs for our world-class advice, execution and financing capabilities," producing the firm's second-highest quarterly net revenues and record revenues for the year to date.

This was a strong quarter built on one business. Equities revenue rose 72% while fixed income stood still, so the result says more about how active stock investors have been than about a broad step up in Goldman's earnings power. We do not cover Goldman Sachs today; we will keep tracking it alongside the other large banks reporting this week.

Every company figure comes from Goldman Sachs's own filings and releases: third-quarter 2026 earnings results (also filed as Form 8-K exhibit), the third-quarter earnings presentation, earlier quarterly results, and the January 8, 2026 Form 8-K with restated segment history. The consensus estimate is from FactSet.

Disclosures. Haverhill Financial Research is a publisher of general financial commentary. This article is not personalized investment advice and does not consider any reader's financial situation; readers should do their own research. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Company figures and guidance can change. The author of this post does not hold positions in Goldman Sachs or the other companies named. Data as of October 13, 2026.