New York, January 16, 2026, 17:56 EST — After-hours.
The Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) shares fell $13.48, or 1.4%, to $962 in after-hours trading on Friday. The stock traded between $957.63 and $983.53 in the session, with about 3.1 million shares changing hands.
Big banks ended 2025 on a strong note and executives struck an upbeat tone for 2026, but President Donald Trump’s proposed 10% cap on credit card interest rates has kept the industry on edge, according to a Reuters analysis. “Equity trading revenues have been the story of the earnings so far,” said Brian Mulberry, senior client portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management. 1
Investment bankers have also been talking up the pipeline. Morgan Stanley CFO Sharon Yeshaya said the bank was seeing deal momentum in areas such as healthcare and industrials, while Macrae Sykes, a portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds, said he expected 2026 to be “a very strong year” for IPOs and announced M&A. 2
Goldman said it earned $4.62 billion in the fourth quarter on net revenues of $13.45 billion. Diluted earnings per share, or EPS, was $14.01. CEO David Solomon said the firm was seeing “high levels of client engagement” and expected momentum to “accelerate in 2026,” while keeping a “disciplined risk management” focus. 3
In its earnings release filed with U.S. regulators, Goldman said net revenues in the quarter were $13.45 billion, down 3% from a year earlier and 11% from the third quarter. Revenue in its Global Banking & Markets unit rose 22% to $10.41 billion, helped by equities revenue of $4.31 billion and fixed-income, currencies and commodities (FICC) revenue of $3.11 billion. Investment banking fees climbed 25% to $2.58 billion. The filing flagged a $2.26 billion markdown tied to moving Apple Card loans to held for sale, offset by a $2.48 billion reserve reduction, as the bank transitions the program to another issuer, and it raised its quarterly dividend to $4.50 per share in the first quarter. 4
Goldman’s call presentation lifted its medium-term target for pre-tax margin in asset and wealth management — a measure of profit before taxes — to about 30%, from the mid-20s it had laid out before. The slide deck also said Goldman repurchased about $12 billion of shares in 2025 and had about $32 billion of capacity left under its current buyback authorization. 5
Goldman’s profit per share of $14.01 beat analysts’ $11.67 estimate, Reuters reported, and the stock rose more than 3% in morning trade on Thursday. CEO David Solomon said the setup looked “incredibly constructive” for M&A in 2026, while Argus Research analyst Stephen Biggar called the dividend increase “a powerful testament”; Reuters also reported a JPMorgan Chase deal to take over the Apple Card partnership and lift results by 46 cents a share, even as quarterly operating expense rose 18% to $9.72 billion. 6
Still, a trading-led quarter can cut both ways. A calmer market can curb client hedging and shrink trading revenue, while a slower deal calendar would hit advisory fees. And costs — pay and tech spend — are still a live question for investors.
U.S. stocks ended nearly flat on Friday ahead of the long weekend, with markets closed on Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Earnings season ramps up next week with reports from Netflix, Johnson & Johnson and Intel, which could steer risk appetite for banks when trading resumes. 7
