Investment bank Goldman Sachs Group said on Tuesday its quarterly earnings more than doubled, driven by strong revenue from stock and bond trading and its leadership position as a mergers and acquisitions adviser.
The New York-based brokerage reported net income for the first quarter ended Feb. 27 rose to $1.29 billion, or $2.50 per share, from $622 million, or $1.29 per share, during the same period last year.
The firm's profits easily exceeded expectations on Wall Street, and shares of Goldman Sachs rose to $102.98 on the INET electronic brokerage system in pre-market trade, up from a closing price of $101.30 on Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.
Like other big investment banks that reported strong results this quarter, Goldman Sachs has benefited from a strong market for trading bonds and a rebound in equity and mergers and acquisitions deals.
The average analyst polled by Reuters Research, a unit of Reuters Group Plc, expected Goldman to post quarterly profits of $1.65 per share.
Revenue from trading and principal investments, which includes trades that Goldman makes with its own cash, were $4.12 billion, up 47 percent from the year-earlier quarter and up 57 percent from the fourth quarter of last year.
Revenue for the division that trades fixed-income securities and commodities rose to a record $2.1 billion, 9 percent more than the same quarter last year. Net revenue in equities trading rose 77 percent to $1.66 billion.
Net investment banking revenue was $763 million compared to $718 million a year earlier. Goldman was the top global adviser of mergers and acquisitions last year, and leads competitors so far in 2004.
