Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) Exceeds Q4 CY2025 Expectations

Global investment bank Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) reported revenue ahead of Wall Streets expectations in Q4 CY2025, but sales fell by 3% year on year to $13.45 billion. Its GAAP profit of $14.01 per share was 20.2% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

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Company Overview

Founded in 1869 as a small commercial paper business in New York City, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is a global financial institution that provides investment banking, securities, asset management, and consumer banking services to corporations, governments, and individuals.

Revenue Growth

Reviewing a company’s long-term sales performance reveals insights into its quality. Even a bad business can shine for one or two quarters, but a top-tier one grows for years. Unfortunately, Goldman Sachs’s 5.5% annualized revenue growth over the last five years was tepid. This wasn’t a great result compared to the rest of the financials sector, but there are still things to like about Goldman Sachs.

We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within financials, a half-decade historical view may miss recent interest rate changes, market returns, and industry trends. Goldman Sachs’s annualized revenue growth of 12.3% over the last two years is above its five-year trend, suggesting its demand recently accelerated. Note: Quarters not shown were determined to be outliers, impacted by outsized investment gains/losses that are not indicative of the recurring fundamentals of the business.

We can dig further into the company’s revenue dynamics by analyzing its most important segments, Banking & Markets and Asset & Wealth Management, which are 77.4% and 35.1% of total revenue. Banking & Markets revenue grew by 6.3% and 17.6% annually over the past five and two years, respectively. At the same time, Asset & Wealth Management revenue increased by 3.8% and 9.3% per year over the past five and two years, respectively. These results underperformed its total revenue.

This quarter, Goldman Sachs’s revenue fell by 3% year on year to $13.45 billion but beat Wall Street’s estimates by 0.5%.

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Tangible Book Value Per Share (TBVPS)

The balance sheet drives profitability for financial firms since earnings flow from managing diverse assets and liabilities across multiple business lines. As such, valuations for these companies concentrate on capital strength and sustainable equity accumulation potential across their varied operations.

This explains why tangible book value per share (TBVPS) is a premier metric for the sector. TBVPS provides concrete per-share net worth that investors can trust when evaluating companies with complex, multi-faceted business models. Other (and more commonly known) per-share metrics like EPS can sometimes be murky due to the complexity of multiple business lines, M&A activity, or accounting rules that vary across different financial services segments.

Goldman Sachs’s TBVPS grew at a solid 10% annual clip over the last five years. The last two years show a similar trajectory as TBVPS grew by 10.8% annually from $291.15 to $357.60 per share.

Tangible Book Value Per Share (TBVPS)

Diversified financial companies operate across multiple business segments, from investment banking and trading to wealth management and specialized lending. Their valuations hinge on balance sheet quality and the ability to compound shareholder equity across these diverse operations.

This is why we consider tangible book value per share (TBVPS) an important metric for the sector. TBVPS represents the real net worth per share across all business segments, providing a clear measure of shareholder equity regardless of the complexity of operations. Traditional metrics like EPS are helpful but face distortion from the complexity of diversified operations, M&A activity, and various accounting rules that can obscure true performance across multiple business lines.

Goldman Sachs’s TBVPS grew at a solid 10% annual clip over the last five years. The last two years show a similar trajectory as TBVPS grew by 10.8% annually from $291.15 to $357.60 per share.

Key Takeaways from Goldman Sachs’s Q4 Results

It was good to see Goldman Sachs beat analysts’ EPS expectations this quarter. We were also excited its Banking & Markets segment outperformed Wall Street’s estimates by a wide margin. Zooming out, we think this was a solid print. Investors were likely hoping for more, and shares traded down 1.4% to $919.51 immediately after reporting.

Big picture, is Goldman Sachs a buy here and now? What happened in the latest quarter matters, but not as much as longer-term business quality and valuation, when deciding whether to invest in this stock. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).