(Reuters) – Goldman Sachs Group Inc dwarfed estimates with a 153% jump in fourth-quarter profit on Tuesday, powered by another blowout performance at its core bond trading and underwriting business and an uptick in merger and acquisition activity.
The bank’s net earnings applicable to common shareholders rose to $4.36 billion in the quarter ended Dec. 31 from $1.72 billion a year ago. Earnings per share rose to $12.08 from $4.69 a year earlier.
Analysts had expected a profit of $7.47 per share on average, according to the IBES estimate from Refinitiv.
Total revenue surged 18% to $11.74 billion.
Goldman’s performance was in line with broader gains for trading units across Wall Street banks, with JPMorgan Chase also reporting stronger-than-expected results as financial market volumes remained consistently high.
The Wall Street giant also benefited from record levels of capital markets activity during the quarter, as it generated handsome underwriting fees from a number of high-profile IPOs including Airbnb, Doordash, Lufax and Root.
(Reporting by Anirban Sen in Bengaluru and Matt Scuffham in New York; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
