goldman sachs on tuesday beat analysts expectations for fourthquarter profit and revenue on strong performance from the firms equities traders and investment bankers the bank posted earnings of 1208 a share crushing the 747 estimate of analysts surveyed by refinitiv revenue of 1174 billion exceeded expectations by about 175 billion shares of the new yorkbased bank slipped 23 after jumping 2 in premarket trading we were able to help clients navigate a difficult environment and as a result achieved strong results across the franchise while advancing our strategic priorities ceo david solomon said in the release we hope this year brings much needed stability and a respite from the pandemic but we remain ready to handle a wide range of outcomes and are poised to meet the needs of our clients expectations were running high for solomon last week jpmorgan chase posted record fourthquarter trading and advisory results that helped the bank beat profit estimates at goldman equities traders produced a 40 bump in revenue from a year earlier to 239 billion exceeding the 189 billion estimate by roughly half a billion dollars but like most of its rivals fixedincome operations missed expectations for the quarter producing 188 billion in revenue below the 206 billion estimate investment banking revenues rose 27 to 261 billion exceeding the 215 billion projection on higher revenues in stock underwriting and completed mergers transactions the firm said goldman sachs earnings were shockingly good said octavio marenzi ceo of capital markets management consultancy opimas we were expecting a strong performance but goldman outperformed in almost every business line … goldmans activities are squarely focused on investment banking and trading areas that did well everywhere but especially well at goldman in a separate presentation goldman said it had made progress against goals given a year ago at its first ever investor day and reiterated that it was committed to its medium and long term targets of the six biggest us banks goldman gets the largest share of its revenue from wall street activities including trading and investment banking for the past few years that has been a detriment to the firm as retail banking has driven the industrys record profits now goldmans model is proving to be an advantage wideopen markets thanks to the federal reserves unprecedented actions earlier in the year are expected to help usher in the best year for trading on wall street since the great recession meanwhile investment bankers are benefiting from surging demand for ipos and a record spate of debt issuance goldmans investment banking division produced record revenue in 2020 of 942 billion thanks to elevated stock and bond underwriting and the firms trading division posted its highest annual revenue in a decade a 43 jump from 2019 on surging activity across markets goldman shares climbed 11 in 2020 besting the 43 decline of the kbw bank index here are the numbers earnings 1208 a share vs 747 per share expected according to refinitiv revenue 1174 billion vs 99 billion estimate