GS · Q2 2026 Earnings

Bullish

Goldman Sachs

Reported July 14, 2026

30-second summary

Goldman printed $20.34B revenue (+39% YoY, +18% QoQ) and $20.98 GAAP EPS, blowing past consensus by 24.1% on the top line and 44.2% on EPS, driven by a 53% YoY surge in Global Banking & Markets to $15.52B and Asia revenue doubling to $3.61B (+102% YoY). Annualized ROE hit 23.5% — 750bps above the mid-teens through-cycle target and the highest print in years — while CET1 (Standardized) rebuilt 40bps QoQ to 12.9%, signaling Q1's deployment burst is being partially replenished by earnings rather than continuing as a glide path. The one blemish: Platform Solutions revenue collapsed to $221M (-64% YoY), well below Q1's $411M "seasonal" framing, forcing a re-baselining of the segment.

Headline numbers

EPS

Q2 FY2026

$20.98

Revenue

Q2 FY2026

$20.34B

+39.0% YoY

+24.1% vs est.

Operating margin

Q2 FY2026

57.3%

Key financials

Q2 FY2026

Metric	Q2 FY2026	Q2 FY2025	YoY	Q1 FY2026	QoQ
Revenue	$20.34B	$14.58B	+39.5%	$17.23B	+18.0%
EPS	$20.98	$10.91	+92.3%	$17.55	+19.5%
Operating margin	57.3%	63.4%	-610bps	39.5%	+1780bps

Guidance

Strong Q2 beats with massive revenue and EPS outperformance driven by Investment Banking & Markets surge; Platform Solutions weakness a concern but offset by robust core performance.

Guidance is issued for the full year only, refreshed each quarter. Prior and new below are the same FY updated this quarter.

Actuals vs prior guidance

Metric	Period	Prior guide	Actual	Δ	Result
Revenue	Q2 FY2026	—	$20.338 billion	+24.1% above consensus estimate of $16.4B	Beat
EPS	Q2 FY2026	—	$20.98	+44.2% above consensus estimate of $14.54	Beat
Platform Solutions revenues	Q2 FY2026	expected to run lower, in line with seasonal trends	$0.221 billion	-64% YoY; significantly below prior guidance expectation of seasonal moderation	Missed

Reaffirmed unchanged this quarter: Effective tax rate (approximately 20%)

Segment performance

Q2 FY2026

Segment	Q2 FY2026	Q2 FY2025	YoY
Global Banking & Markets	$15.52B	$10.12B	+53.4%
Asset & Wealth Management	$4.597B	$3.778B	+21.7%
Platform Solutions	$0.221B	$0.685B	-67.7%
Investment Banking Fees	$3.395 billion	$2.191 billion	—

Capital & returns

Q2 FY2026

Segment	Q2 FY2026	Q2 FY2025	YoY
Annualized Return on Equity (ROE)	23.5%	—	—
Book Value Per Share	$367.67	$349.74	—
Common Equity Tier 1 Ratio (Standardized)	12.9%	14.5%	—
Total Deposits	$558 billion	—	—

Other KPIs

Q2 FY2026

Segment	Q2 FY2026	Q2 FY2025	YoY
Americas	$12.222B	$8.982B	+36.1%
EMEA	$4.502B	$3.811B	+18.1%
Asia	$3.614B	$1.79B	+101.9%
Efficiency Ratio (YTD)	58.8%	62.0%	—
Assets Under Supervision	$4.041 trillion	$3,293 billion	—
Average Daily VaR	$120 million	—	—

Management tone

Narrative arc: Q2 (M&A reignites, capital as story) → Q3 (dominance quantified, GS 3.0 launched) → Q4 (multi-year structural targets, excess capital) → Q1 (deployment begins, CET1 to 12.5%) → Q2 (earnings surge validates the framework, capital ratio rebuilds).

Transcript commentary was not available for this quarter; the tone read below is derived from the press-release disclosures and management commentary embedded in it, and will be refreshed once the call transcript is processed.

Capital posture appears to have shifted from "actively deploying" to "letting earnings rebuild the ratio." Q1's story was CET1 compressing 180bps to 12.5% as management finally converted "excess capital" language into action. Q2 shows the ratio rebuilding 40bps to 12.9% — not because management pulled back deployment, but because $6.63B of quarterly net income overwhelmed the pace of return-of-capital. The signal: at 23.5% annualized ROE, Goldman generates capital faster than it can deploy it. This changes the buyback debate — expect the next question from analysts to be about pace of authorization use rather than willingness to deploy.

The IB backlog language escalated one notch further. Q4 framed the backlog as "extraordinarily robust" at a four-year high; Q1 said it "remained extraordinarily robust" even after strong production; Q2 says backlog "increased compared with both the end of the first quarter of 2026 and the end of 2025." That specific two-anchor comparison is a rhetorical step-up — management is now telling investors the pipeline is growing from record levels, not just holding at them. With Q2 IB fees at $3.40B (+20% QoQ from $2.84B), the conversion machine is validating the framing.

The Platform Solutions silence is louder than the disclosure. Q4 gave a "small, immaterial pre-tax loss" FY26 guide. Q1 offered "lower, in line with seasonal trends" for Q2. Q2 printed $221M — a 46% QoQ drop that shatters the seasonal framing — and no updated segment guide was disclosed. When a segment misses this decisively, the absence of a refreshed forward marker is itself the tone shift.

Answers to last quarter's watch list

Platform Solutions Q2 print vs. the "seasonal" framing. Segment revenue printed $221M — dramatically below both the $450M+ threshold that would have validated Q1 as the trough and the "seasonal" framing management used. -64% YoY and -46% QoQ is not seasonality; it's accelerating runoff. No segment pre-tax loss figure was disclosed in the press release, forcing investors to re-baseline the FY26 "small, immaterial" characterization without new data.

Resolved negatively

CET1 trajectory now that the ratio has broken 13%. CET1 (Standardized) rebuilt to 12.9% from Q1's 12.5% — a 40bps step-up. This contradicts the "multi-quarter glide path" thesis and supports the alternative read: Q1 was a deployment burst, and at 23.5% annualized ROE Goldman generates capital faster than it distributes it. The ratio is well above the 11.4% current capital requirement. Status: Resolved — glide path was not the right frame.

IB fees holding above $2.5B with sponsor activity still soft. IB fees printed $3.40B, +20% QoQ from Q1's $2.84B and comfortably above the $2.5B threshold. This decisively validates the strategic M&A leg as durable. The press release also flags backlog increased vs. both end-of-Q1 and end-of-2025 — the forward-looking anchor investors were watching for.

Resolved positively

Asia revenue sustainability. Asia printed $3.61B (+102% YoY, +18.8% QoQ from $3.04B), well above the $2.5B threshold that would have reopened the deal-cluster-outlier question. Two consecutive quarters of extreme Asia strength — and QoQ acceleration on top of Q1's already-elevated base — sets a very high comp bar but firmly answers whether Q1 was structural.

Resolved positively

Equities financing holding $2.4B+ with the 40% mix call intact. The press release-only extraction does not break out equities financing specifically, so the $2.4B threshold cannot be validated directly from the disclosed KPIs. Given GBM segment revenue of $15.52B (+53% YoY) and the qualitative strength across markets, the direction is favorable, but a specific data point on financing revenue and mix awaits the transcript.

Continue monitoring

Efficiency ratio direction. YTD efficiency ratio compressed to 58.8% from Q1 YTD 60.5% — a 170bps step-down that is the first meaningful move lower in over a year. Operating margin of 57.3% and annualized ROE of 23.5% are the mechanical output. Management did not (yet, in the press release) attribute the move to GS 3.0, which is the missing piece for a fully positive resolution. Status: Resolved positively on numbers; attribution TBD.

What to watch into next quarter

Whether Q2's 23.5% ROE and 57.3% operating margin are the new run-rate or a peak. A Q3 ROE holding above 20% would signal Goldman has structurally re-rated its earnings power via GS 3.0 efficiency + AWM margin expansion + capital optimization. A drop back toward 17–18% would suggest Q2 was a cyclical peak driven by IB and Asia deal clusters, not a step-change.

Platform Solutions segment guide refresh. Q2's $221M print eviscerated the "seasonal" framing. Watch whether the Q3 call gives a quantified segment run-rate or pre-tax loss update. Continued silence past another quarter would suggest management doesn't have visibility on where Apple Card runoff bottoms.

CET1 direction from 12.9%. If the ratio rebuilds further toward 13.5%+, it means earnings are outpacing deployment and buybacks may need to step up materially; if it stays flat or steps down, capital return is keeping pace with the earnings surge. Either outcome is informative about the pace of buyback authorization use.

Asia comp risk. With Q1 at $3.04B and Q2 at $3.61B, the H2 base becomes progressively harder. A Q3 Asia print below $2.8B would reopen the cyclical-peak debate for the region; a print at $3B+ would validate the structural rebalancing thesis.

IB fees vs. the $3.40B Q2 baseline. Backlog is described as growing from record levels. A Q3 print above $3.0B with backlog still elevated would confirm the multi-quarter conversion arc; a drop to $2.5B or below would suggest Q2 pulled forward deal closings.

GS 3.0 attribution to the efficiency-ratio step-down. YTD efficiency of 58.8% is the first real evidence of compression. Watch whether management explicitly attributes any portion of this to the AI operating model on the Q3 call — that attribution is what converts a data point into a modeling anchor.

Sources

Goldman Sachs Q2 2026 earnings press release (SEC EDGAR, July 14 2026): https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/886982/000088698226000294/a2q26gsearningsresults.htm

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