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Back of Napkin

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. GS

Three-pass checkedFresh as companies report

Goldman Sachs earned a 23.5% return on equity last quarter, against 12.8% a year earlier, and its banking and markets division nearly doubled its pretax income.

Its consumer lending business, the one it spent a decade and several billion dollars building, is now a $221M segment losing money.

GS · price with moving averages

Daily · 6MWeekly · 3Y
$225$459$693$927$1161 Sep '23Apr '24Nov '24Jun '25Jan '26Aug '26 BID
EMAs82140

Source: market data.

The business

Goldman does two things well and one thing badly. Global Banking and Markets advises on mergers, underwrites securities, and makes markets in almost everything, which is roughly three quarters of the revenue. Asset and Wealth Management runs money for institutions and wealthy individuals and earns a fee on it.

Platform Solutions is the third piece, the remains of the consumer push. The Apple Card portfolio moved to held-for-sale in the December quarter, which is how a strategic retreat appears in an accounting line.

Inside the complete Back of Napkin

  1. 01The business
  2. 02The numbers
  3. 03Management
  4. 04How it fails or surprises you
  5. 05The shape of the payoff
  6. 06Closing thoughts
  7. 07Methodology

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