Goldman’s Stock Traders Smash Records as BlackRock Assets Hit $14 Trillion

Wall Street banks handed back a record amount of capital to shareholders as surging profit and relaxing capital rules gave executives the confidence to ramp up stock buybacks.  Morgan Stanley’s debt bankers increased revenue 93% in the fourth quarter, by far the biggest jump on Wall Street and capping a record year for that business. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. blew through expectations for equities-trading revenue, posting an all-time Wall Street record of $4.31 billion in the final three months of last year. BlackRock Inc. pulled in $342 billion of total client cash in the fourth quarter, pushing the firm to a record $14 trillion of assets as it integrates a string of recent acquisitions to become a force in private markets. Bloomberg's Neil Sipes joins to break down bank earnings on Bloomberg Intelligence.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. blew through expectations for equities-trading revenue, posting an all-time Wall Street record of $4.31 billion in the final three months of last year.

That was higher than the previous record for any bank, set by Goldman in the second quarter of 2025. It also came in nearly $700 million higher than what analysts had expected for the quarter, according to the average estimate compiled by Bloomberg.

Revenue at the global banking and markets division — which includes trading and dealmaking — hit a record for the full year.

Goldman has fine-tuned its trading machine and expanded its investment-banking share under Chief Executive David Solomon, who has reasserted control and refocused the firm after a precarious period triggered by a failed foray into consumer banking. It’s also pushing to grow its buyouts unit, which it’s touted as a reliable income generator that helps balance more volatile core businesses.

Goldman and Morgan Stanley are the last of the biggest US banks to report fourth-quarter results. Morgan Stanley said Thursday that its debt-underwriting operation increased revenue 93% in the fourth quarter, by far the biggest jump on Wall Street and capping a record year for that business.

Goldman raised its dividend to $4.50 per share, it said in a statement Thursday. Its shares rose 4% at 11:03 a.m. in New York.

The firm’s fixed-income, currency and commodities traders beat expectations, too, posting $3.1 billion of revenue. That included a record for FICC financing, which includes lending to hedge funds and other investors using such assets as collateral. On a call with analysts, Solomon also said the firm was exploring opportunities in prediction markets.

Goldman also increased targets for its asset- and wealth-management business, which posted a quarterly record for fees. It said it would aim for a 30% pretax margin in the medium term for the unit, up from the mid-twenties, and returns in the high-teens, up from the mid-teens.

Led by Marc Nachmann, that arm of Goldman is growing through a flurry of acquisitions. Those include buying exchange-traded fund issuer Innovator Capital and venture capital firm Industry Ventures. The firm said it aims to increase its alternatives assets under supervision to $750 billion by the end of the decade, up from $420 billion.

Apple Card

Net revenue in 2025 was $58.3 billion, its second-best year on record. Without the multibillion-dollar impact from the sale of its Apple Card portfolio to JPMorgan Chase & Co., it would have been a record.

Compensation expense was 13% higher in 2025 after a bigger-than-expected rise in the fourth quarter, though the annual jump was less than the firm’s 14% increase in annual revenue net of loan-loss provisions.

Solomon said the bank was pushing greater operating efficiency by using artificial intelligence, but said he couldn’t elaborate yet. “To be honest, I had hoped to give a little bit more transparency at this earnings call, but we don’t have the full confidence to put information out publicly,” he said.

Last year, the bank said that rolling out AI would make its back office more efficient and lead to more job cuts. Headcount fell by 900 during the fourth quarter to 47,400, it said on Thursday.

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