Goldman Sachs Q3 2026: EPS $17.01, up 39% YoY, down 19% from Q2

Goldman Sachs earns most of its money advising on and underwriting deals, making markets and financing positions for large investors, and managing money for institutions and wealthy clients. That mix differs sharply from a deposit-and-loan bank such as JPMorgan Chase, which reported the same morning. Net interest income, the core of JPMorgan’s story, was only $3.77 billion of Goldman’s $18.68 billion in quarterly net revenues.

The comparison point matters. Against a year earlier, every headline line is up: net revenues rose 23%, net earnings 29% to $5.29 billion, and diluted EPS 39% to $17.01. Against the second quarter, which was stronger still, EPS fell 19% from $20.98. Most of this piece explains that second comparison line by line.

Goldman Sachs Q3 2026 results at a glance

	3Q26	2Q26	3Q25
Net revenues	$18,679M	$20,338M	$15,184M
— Global Banking & Markets	$13,458M	$15,520M	$10,168M
— Asset & Wealth Management	$5,051M	$4,597M	$4,418M
— Platform Solutions	$170M	$221M	$598M
Provision for credit losses	$368M	$102M	$339M
Operating expenses	$11,308M	$11,673M	$9,453M
— of which compensation and benefits	$5,122M	$6,104M	$4,680M
Pre-tax earnings	$7,003M	$8,563M	$5,392M
Net earnings	$5,294M	$6,628M	$4,098M
Diluted EPS	$17.01	$20.98	$12.25
Annualized ROE	18.7%	23.5%	14.2%
Annualized ROTE	20.5%	25.5%	15.2%
Efficiency ratio	60.5%	57.4%	62.3%
Book value per share	$372.64	$367.67	$353.79

ROE is annualized net earnings to common divided by average common equity; ROTE uses tangible common equity (excluding goodwill and identifiable intangibles). The efficiency ratio is operating expenses over net revenues, so lower is better (the JPMorgan post explains tangible equity in more depth). The 3Q25 ROE, ROTE and efficiency figures are derived from the change columns in the company’s presentation.

For the first nine months, net revenues were $56.24 billion (up 25%), net earnings $17.55 billion (up 40%) and diluted EPS $55.56 against $37.33. Year-to-date ROE was 20.7% and the year-to-date efficiency ratio 59.4%, against 62.1% a year earlier. In the earnings presentation, chairman and chief executive David Solomon said client demand resulted in “our second highest quarterly net revenues and record year-to-date net revenues.”

Did Goldman Sachs issue guidance for Q3 2026?

No. Goldman Sachs does not issue quarterly revenue or earnings guidance: its second-quarter release and presentation (Form 8-K filed July 14, 2026) give no revenue, EPS or ROE figure for the third quarter. The yardstick is therefore the year-ago quarter. Against it, net revenues rose 23% to $18.68 billion, net earnings 29% to $5.29 billion and diluted EPS 39% to $17.01 from $12.25, as reported in the company’s release and presentation.

Why EPS fell from Q2

Diluted EPS fell by $3.97. Working down the income statement:

• Net revenues fell $1,659 million (−8%). Global Banking & Markets lost $2,062 million, Asset & Wealth Management added $454 million and Platform Solutions lost $51 million.
• Provision for credit losses rose $266 million, to $368 million from $102 million. The company says the provision mainly reflected impairments on wholesale loans, and $345 million of it sat in Global Banking & Markets.
• Operating expenses fell $365 million (−3%). Compensation and benefits fell $982 million, while other expenses nearly doubled to $1,098 million from $559 million.
• Pre-tax earnings fell $1,560 million (−18%) to $7,003 million.
• Net earnings fell faster, by 20%, because the tax provision fell only 12%. By our arithmetic the quarterly effective tax rate was about 24.4%, against about 22.6% in Q2. The company says the year-to-date rate rose to 20.4% from 18.5% at the half mainly because tax benefits from settling employee share-based awards had less impact; those benefits cut the nine-month tax bill by about $975 million.
• The share count helped slightly. Average diluted shares fell to 301.1 million from 304.9 million, so EPS fell 19% while net earnings to common fell 20%.

One item stands out. The presentation says charitable contributions to Goldman Sachs Gives added about $450 million to non-compensation expenses; after tax, that cut diluted EPS by about $1.00 and annualized ROE and ROTE by about 1.1 percentage points each. The company does not call this non-recurring or adjust its headline figures for it, and neither do we.

Compensation pushed the other way. Pay fell 16% while net revenues fell 8%, so compensation was about 27.4% of net revenues, against about 30.0% in Q2 and 30.8% a year earlier; year to date it was about 29.6%, down from about 30.7% for the first half (our arithmetic; the filing gives no compensation ratio and does not explain the quarterly level).

Investment banking vs trading

Global Banking & Markets brought in $13.46 billion, about 72% of the total, up 32% from a year earlier and down 13% from Q2, with a segment annualized ROE of 20.7%. Its three parts moved in different directions.

Investment banking fees: $3,224 million, up 21% year over year and down 5% from Q2. Advisory, the fees for M&A work, reached a record $1,654 million, up 20% from Q2 and 18% from a year earlier. The company cites higher completed M&A volumes. Underwriting fell back from Q2, equity by 32% to $666 million and debt by 12% to $904 million, though both remained above a year earlier (up 43% and 15%). The investment banking fees backlog decreased from the end of the second quarter, mainly because of Advisory, and was slightly lower than at the end of 2025; the company gives no dollar figure.

Trading (FICC and Equities): $9,912 million combined, down from $12,008 million in Q2 and up from $7,229 million a year earlier (our sums). FICC is fixed income, currencies and commodities. Goldman splits each desk into intermediation (market-making for clients) and financing (lending to clients against securities, such as prime brokerage, repo and structured lending).

$ millions	3Q26	2Q26	Change QoQ	3Q25
FICC intermediation	2,264	3,376	−1,112	2,437
FICC financing	1,207	1,216	−9	1,056
Equities intermediation	3,076	4,157	−1,081	2,020
Equities financing	3,365	3,259	+106	1,716

The two intermediation lines together fell $2,193 million, about 1.3 times the firm’s total revenue decline; everything else added up to a net gain. The financing lines barely moved, and Equities financing set another record at $3,365 million, up 96% from a year earlier. Combined financing revenue was $4,572 million, about a third of the segment (our arithmetic). In our reading, financing revenue tracks client balances and so tends to be steadier than intermediation; this quarter fits that pattern. The company explains FICC intermediation only against a year earlier (down 7%): much lower revenue in mortgages and credit and lower revenue in rates, partly offset by much higher revenue in currencies and commodities. Total FICC was essentially unchanged from a year earlier at $3.47 billion. Equities, at $6.44 billion, was 72% higher than a year earlier.

Geographically, EMEA revenue fell $1,297 million from Q2 to $3,205 million, the Americas fell $548 million and Asia rose $186 million. Asia’s $3,800 million was up about 90% from a year earlier (our arithmetic).

Asset & Wealth Management: the part that grew from Q2

Asset & Wealth Management net revenues were $5,051 million, up 10% from Q2 and 14% from a year earlier, with a segment annualized ROE of 16.1%. The lines behind that total moved very differently:

• Management and other fees hit a record $3,587 million (+7% QoQ, +22% YoY): $1.55 billion from asset management and $2.04 billion from wealth management. The company attributes the increase to higher average assets under supervision.
• Incentive fees, performance-based fees on funds, were $587 million, against $112 million in Q2 and $76 million a year earlier. The company says fund distributions drove them. Because they depend on the timing of distributions, they can swing widely between quarters.
• Private banking and lending rose 20% from Q2 to $827 million. It was down 22% from a year earlier, when the figure included interest paid on a previously impaired loan.
• Investments fell to $50 million from $441 million in Q2, including net markdowns in debt investments.

Assets under supervision (AUS), the client assets Goldman manages or oversees, rose $56 billion to a record $4,097 billion. Long-term net inflows were $97 billion: $47 billion through wealth management, $31 billion from institutions and $19 billion through third-party distribution. Liquidity products saw $14 billion of net outflows, and market moves subtracted $27 billion. The firm says this was its 35th consecutive quarter of long-term fee-based net inflows. Alternative investments AUS reached a record $491 billion, management fees from alternatives were $860 million (up 43% year over year), and gross third-party alternatives fundraising was $37 billion in the quarter and $122 billion year to date. During the quarter the firm also announced agreements to acquire NEOS Investments and LCN Capital Partners.

Platform Solutions earned net revenues of $170 million and posted a pre-tax loss of $95 million. The company attributes the decline from a year earlier mainly to net markdowns on the Apple Card loan portfolio, which it moved to held for sale in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Capital, buybacks and book value

The Standardized CET1 ratio (common equity Tier 1 capital as a share of risk-weighted assets, the main regulatory capital measure) fell to 12.4% from 12.9% at June 30 and 14.3% at the end of 2025. CET1 capital was roughly flat at $101.4 billion. The ratio fell because Standardized risk-weighted assets grew to $817 billion from $791 billion, which the company attributes mainly to higher market and credit RWAs. The supplementary leverage ratio held at 4.3%. These are preliminary estimates that may be revised in the 10-Q.

The firm returned $4.49 billion to common shareholders in the quarter: $3.00 billion of buybacks (2.9 million shares) and $1.49 billion of dividends. That is about 88% of the quarter’s $5,122 million of net earnings to common (our arithmetic). The board declared a $5.00 quarterly dividend, payable December 30, 2026 to holders of record on December 2.

Book value per share rose 1.4% in the quarter to $372.64, 4.2% year to date and about 5.3% from a year earlier (our arithmetic). Tangible book value per share was $341.43, against $336.61 at June 30. Headcount rose 3% in the quarter to 47,500, which the company attributes to the timing of campus hires.

What to watch in Q4

• The backlog. Advisory had a record quarter, but the backlog fell from June, mainly in Advisory. The fourth-quarter release will show whether completed deals were replaced.
• Intermediation vs financing. Intermediation produced the Q2-to-Q3 swing while financing held up; whether it keeps doing so if client balances shrink tests how steady that half of trading is.
• CET1 headroom. The Standardized ratio has fallen 1.9 points since December as risk-weighted assets grew. If that continues, watch whether buybacks hold at $3.00 billion a quarter.
• The Apple Card transition. The presentation flags the risk that the transition of the Apple Card program may not close on the anticipated timeline or at all. Platform Solutions results remain tied to that portfolio.
• Tax rate and other expenses. The year-to-date tax rate has risen as share-based award benefits faded. The fourth quarter will show where the full-year rate lands and whether other expenses return to Q2 levels.

Quick answers

What did Goldman Sachs earn in Q3 2026?

Net earnings were $5.29 billion, or $17.01 per diluted share, on net revenues of $18.68 billion, against $4.10 billion and $12.25 a share in the third quarter of 2025.

Why was EPS lower than in Q2 2026?

Net revenues fell $1.66 billion, driven by a $2.19 billion combined drop in FICC and Equities intermediation, and credit provisions rose $266 million; lower compensation only partly offset this. Charitable contributions of about $450 million cut EPS by about $1.00.

Which Goldman business grew from Q2?

Asset & Wealth Management, up 10% to $5.05 billion, on record management fees of $3.59 billion and incentive fees of $587 million. Advisory fees also rose 20% to a record $1.65 billion.

What was Goldman’s ROE in Q3 2026?

Annualized ROE was 18.7% and ROTE 20.5%, against 23.5% and 25.5% in Q2; year to date, ROE was 20.7%.

Sources and method. Every company figure is Goldman Sachs’ own disclosure, read directly from SEC EDGAR and linked above. The income statement, segment, line-item and geographic net revenues, average diluted shares, the nine-month totals, ROE of 18.7% and 20.7%, the year-to-date efficiency ratio, the 20.4% and 18.5% tax rates and the ~$975 million share-based award benefit, book value per share, headcount, AUS and its rollforward, the CET1, RWA and leverage figures, capital returned, the $5.00 dividend and the backlog direction come from Exhibit 99.1 to the Form 8-K filed 2026-10-13 (accession 0000886982-26-000529) for the quarter ended 2026-09-30. ROTE, the quarterly efficiency ratio, the change columns from which the 3Q25 ROE (14.2%), ROTE (15.2%) and efficiency ratio (62.3%) are derived, the 14.3% year-end CET1 ratio, segment provisions, profit and ROE, the record designations, the backlog’s attribution to Advisory, the ~$450 million charitable-contribution impact, the fee split, AUS by client channel, the alternatives figures, the NEOS and LCN announcements, tangible book value per share, the Apple Card risk statement and David Solomon’s statement come from Exhibit 99.2, the earnings presentation in the same filing. The 2Q26 ROE (23.5%), ROTE (25.5%) and efficiency ratio (57.4%) and its record designations were checked against Goldman’s second-quarter presentation (accession 0000886982-26-000294).

No consensus estimate is included. Whether the quarter beat or missed is judged only against the year-ago quarter, because Goldman Sachs issued no quarterly guidance (its second-quarter Form 8-K, filed 2026-07-14, accession 0000886982-26-000294, was checked for one). This piece makes no claim about the share-price reaction.

Our arithmetic, labelled as such: the $3.97 EPS decline and the line-by-line dollar changes from Q2; the $2,193 million intermediation decline (~1.3× the revenue decline); the trading totals of $9,912 million, $12,008 million and $7,229 million; financing revenue of $4,572 million (about a third of the segment); the ~72% segment share; Asia’s ~90% rise; quarterly tax rates of about 24.4% and 22.6%; compensation ratios of about 27.4%, 30.0%, 30.8%, 29.6% and 30.7%; the ~88% payout of net earnings to common; the 1.9-point CET1 decline since December; and the ~5.3% rise in book value per share. These are approximations, not reported numbers. The interpretation — that the drop from Q2 was concentrated in intermediation while financing and management fees held or grew — is our analysis, not a company statement or a forecast.

Related: JPMorgan Chase Q3 2026, UnitedHealth Q3 2026 and Johnson & Johnson Q3 2026, also reported that day, and Coinbase Q2 2026 on how trading activity drives a quarter. The next day’s reports: Bank of America Q3 2026 and Morgan Stanley Q3 2026.

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