Goldman Sachs has reported that its fourth-quarter profit dropped 21 per cent as revenue from mortgages and trading in bonds and other securities weakened.
Goldman earned $2.25 billion in the October-December quarter after paying dividends on preferred shares, down from $2.83 billion in the same period a year earlier.
That worked out to $4.60 per share, down from $5.60 per share a year earlier. The results were well above the earnings of $4.18 per share that analysts were expecting.
It was the first year-on-year decline in earnings at Goldman Sachs since the second quarter of 2012, when income fell 12 per cent to $927 million.
Revenue slipped 5 per cent to $8.78 billion, but exceeded the analysts’ forecast of $7.72 billion. Recent weakness in trading of bonds, currencies and commodities has depressed earnings at Goldman.
Goldman’s CEO Lloyd Blankfein said in a prepared statement that the company has worked to keep the costs down “to provide solid returns even in a somewhat challenging environment’’.
The decline came despite a 22 per cent jump in earnings in Goldman’s investment banking business in the fourth quarter to $1.72 billion. The company maintained its quarterly dividend at 55 cents.
Goldman’s stock fell $1.60 or 0.9 per cent to $177.19 in early trading.