Goldman Sachs Profit Drops 72 Percent In First Quarter

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc posted stronger-than-expected quarterly profit, earning more money from bond trading than analysts had forecast.

The results helped assuage investor concerns that the bank's trading business was doomed to post lackluster returns for some time, and Goldman's shares rose 1.8 percent in premarket trading.

"These numbers will probably begin to calm some of the fears that the market had been worried about," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Avalon Partners in New York.

Client trading volume improved from the 2010 fourth quarter, which was unusually weak across Wall Street. The bank's revenue from trading for customers was down 22 percent from the first quarter of 2010. The year-earlier quarter was unusually strong.

Overall profit for common shareholders fell 72 percent, due in part to declining customer trading revenue and also due to a $1.64 billion charge to buy back $5 billion of preferred shares from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.

The largest U.S. investment bank posted a profit to common shareholders of $908 million, or $1.56 a share. Analysts' average forecast was 82 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Excluding the preferred redemption, Goldman would have earned $4.38 a share.

A year earlier, it earned $3.3 billion, or $5.59 a share.

Revenue fell 7 percent; revenue from fixed income, currency and commodities was down 28 percent.
Goldman Sachs set aside $5.23 billion for employee compensation in the quarter, a 5 percent decline from the same quarter last year.

(Reporting by Lauren Tara LaCapra and Dan Wilchins; Additional reporting by Angela Moon; editing by John Wallace)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Comments

[iam99]

05:58 PM on 04/20/2011

Who would not shun fraud?

[purplejesus]

03:52 PM on 04/20/2011

Heres to hoping it drops 100%!!!!!

[blueken]

03:20 PM on 04/20/2011

I'd like to get Liz Warren to go through their books and see if they are even solvent.

[OutAtFirst]

03:16 PM on 04/20/2011

Mega-profits tend to trend downward when you have to play by the rules.

[man in the middle]

10:49 AM on 04/20/2011

This is not surprising and just about what you would expect from a business based on gambling.

[lloydc1231]

10:00 AM on 04/20/2011

I forgot to mention Obama, who made $1,728,096. Millionaires take care of millionaires. That's just the way it is.

[lloydc1231]

09:56 AM on 04/20/2011

The banksters drop a few crumbs to our Congressmen now ant then; therefore, the banksters will operate as usual.

[Uhgg]

06:49 AM on 04/20/2011

Boo Hoo lets hope they go under

[acorus]

02:29 AM on 04/20/2011

o please, no impunity for these economic terrorists whom pose infinitely more harm to our collective well being than any of the recipients on our current 3 war fronts...these people are rancid, and need to be taken out of circulation = humbled by justice, asap! but goldman-sax was obama's largest campaign contributor, and this purge will not be undertaken by these republicrats (either of our ruling parties whom are mired in the very fabric of nefarious influence), so a 3rd independent party must perforce surface, with a potus and attorney general unbeholden to these white collar criminals and their ubiquitous tentacles reaching into congress itself. so let's for the sake of our republic run and elect bernie sanders for potus, and elliot (ness) spitzer for attorney general, it's time we prioritize our evils, and go after the wicked enemy within

[Lolie Culley]

02:19 AM on 04/20/2011

It's about time! Let them FAIL.

[Robert Cantor]

01:11 AM on 04/20/2011

'.. fell 72 percent, due in part to declining customer trading revenue ..'
It's harder to steal money when the marks are on to you.

[LynnW49]

12:53 AM on 04/20/2011

I don't understand what a total collapse would mean. . .Their competitors become bigger and badder vultures? But I sure would like to see them go utterly and completely down the drain.

[spinns17]

12:41 AM on 04/20/2011

dont worry the feds will bail them out again

[robbor]

10:35 PM on 04/19/2011

" Goldman Sachs Profit Drops 72 Percent In First Quarter "...means the bonuses will be a flow'in

[trespanieli]

10:16 PM on 04/19/2011

Couldn't happen to a better bunch.