Portfolio: Zacks Focus List, Zacks Top 10

Goldman Sachs reported strong second-quarter 2025 financial results that exceeded analyst expectations, with significant growth in trading revenues and investment banking fees. The firm demonstrated resilience amid economic uncertainty while increasing shareholder returns.

Core Performance Metrics

• Net Revenues: $14.58 billion, up 15% year-over-year
• Net Earnings: $3.72 billion, up 22% year-over-year
• Earnings Per Share (EPS): $10.91, significantly beating analyst estimates and up from $8.62 in Q2 2024
• Return on Equity (ROE): 12.8% for the quarter and 14.8% for the first half of 2025

But the key for investment banks isn’t performance of fixed-fee revenue streams such as AUM fees or net interest income, but fee-based services particularly in capital markets and advisory services. In that area, investment banking fees soared to $2.19 billion, up 26% year-over-year.

CEO David Solomon was upbeat on the call, stating “the economy and markets are generally responding positively to the evolving policy environment” but that we shouldn’t lose sight of risk management.

The outlook remains positive as M&A dealmaking continues to run at a healthy clip, and Goldman remains #1 on the Street in this category.

We maintain our Outperform rating on Goldman Sachs (GS) and continue to feature it in the Zacks Focus List, where it has remained since mid-2018, and even recently moved it into the high-conviction Zacks Top 10.