Morning Earnings Roundup: Better Investing at Goldman Sachs

Investing
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For the world’s premier investment bank, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) hadn’t had much luck investing of late. That changed this past quarter.

Goldman Sachs swung to a third-quarter profit by boosting its investment-banking revenue by 49% from a year ago. The bank’s overall earnings of $1.51 billion were a complete 180 from the $393 million in losses it suffered in the third quarter of 2011. Net revenue more than doubled to $8.35 billion.

Earnings per share of $2.85 were far greater than the 84-cents-per-share loss Goldman reported last year, and outpaced analyst estimates of $2.12 per share. The earnings beat, plus a four-cent hike in its quarterly dividend, has pushed GS shares up close to 1% in early trading today.

Fellow investment-banking giant Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), which reports earnings on Thursday, is benefitting from Goldman’s improved investing numbers. Morgan Stanley shares are up a half-percent today.

Here’s how two other companies that reported earnings this morning fared:

  • Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO): The world’s largest beverage maker reported a 3.9% bump in its third-quarter earnings. Coke’s earnings of 50 cents a share was an improvement over the 48 cents a share the company earned a year earlier; however, it trailed the 51 cents per share analysts were expecting. As a result, the stock is down a half-percent this morning.
  • Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ): Sales were up, but profits were down for this longtime consumer staple/pharmaceutical company. Acquisition and research costs pushed profits down 7.3%, but sales increased 6.5% thanks to the company’s recent purchase of medical-device maker Synthes. Despite the profit decline, Johnson & Johnson’s earnings beat Wall Street estimates, pushing the shares up more than 1% in early trading.
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