GS
Same old “show me more” from JPMorgan
JPMorgan Chase & Co. just reiterated a Neutral rating on Goldman Sachs, which is Wall Street’s polite way of saying, “Nice quarter, but don’t go throwing a ticker-tape parade yet.” The note comes as Goldman’s stock has a pretty chunky analyst following, with the broader Street still sitting at 8 Buys and 14 Holds.
The earnings beat was the shiny part
Goldman recently posted a Q1 beat with $17.55 in EPS versus $15.92 expected, plus $17.23 billion in revenue. The heavy lifting came from record equities trading and stronger dealmaking, which is the kind of combo that makes investment bankers look like they’ve found the cheat code.
The company also declared a $4.50 quarterly dividend, while continuing to push into private credit and invest in cloud/data infrastructure. Translation: Goldman is trying to be more than just the classic trading-and-M&A machine.
But the grumbling hasn’t gone away
There are still a few buzzkills in the story:
- FICC revenue weakness is still hanging around
- Operating expenses are creeping higher
- Credit provisions are a watch item
- Insider selling has been notable, with roughly 117,283 shares sold last quarter worth about $112 million
So yeah, the business is doing plenty right. But for investors, the message from this note is basically: Goldman’s got momentum, just not enough to make everyone slam the buy button.
Big picture: Goldman is firing on more cylinders than it was a year ago, but analysts still seem to want a little more proof before handing out gold stars.