Goldman Sachs falls short of Wall Street's lowered Q2 expectations

(Sharecast News) - Goldman Sachs Group released its second-quarter earnings on Wednesday, becoming the only one of America's six big banks to miss profit forecasts as it fell below the lowered expectations set by Wall Street analysts. The investment banking giant put the lower profit performance down to increased expenses.

For the three months ended 30 June, Goldman Sachs recorded earnings of $1.07bn, or $3.08 per share.

That represented a decline of more than 50% year-on-year, when the bank earned $2.79bn, or $7.73 per share.

Its earnings per share fell short of market expectations, which were estimated to be $3.16 according to FactSet.

Although Goldman Sachs also recorded a decrease in revenue, generating $10.9bn compared to $11.86bn in the same period last year, it still managed to top analyst estimates for $10.61bn.

It put the beating of revenue projections down to a strong performance in its global banking and markets unit.

Goldman Sachs still, however, recorded a $485m impairment charge related to consolidated real-estate investments, including depreciation and amortisation.

Additionally, the bank incurred a $504m loss in its GreenSky consumer lending business.

"This quarter reflects continued strategic execution of our goals," said chairman and chief executive officer David Solomon.

"Global banking and markets delivered solid returns in an environment with cyclically low activity levels and we remained number one in completed mergers and acquisitions - a testament to our world-class client franchise.

"Asset and wealth management produced record assets under supervision, record management and other fees and record net revenues in private banking and lending.

"I remain fully confident that continued execution will enable us to deliver on our through-the-cycle return targets and create significant value for shareholders."

At 1011 EDT (1511 BST), shares in Goldman Sachs Group were up 1.17% at $341.23.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.