Banking, finance, and taxes

Highlights From the Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs Q3 Reports

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The third-quarter earnings reporting season is now underway, and that means major banks are the first to kick it off. Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) are two of big ones that reported on Wednesday morning.

One thing that analysts have noted about banks going into this quarter (and we’ve seen this in JPMorgan and Citigroup’s earnings on Tuesday) is that deposits have grown as the coronavirus pandemic has worn on.

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While banks have been encouraged not to grow their balance sheets, consumers seem intent on saving more money than they spend while the pandemic is still wearing on the country. Also more consumers have been getting into the market as well, which may be a good story for investment houses.

24/7 Wall St. has included a couple brief summaries of each report and how each respective stock is responding.

Wells Fargo said that it had $0.42 in earnings per share (EPS) and $18.9 billion in revenue. The consensus estimates had called for $0.45 in EPS and revenue of $17.97 billion. In the same period of last year, the megabank said it had EPS of $0.92 and $22.01 billion in revenue.

During the latest quarter, average loans were $931.7 billion, down $18.1 billion from the third quarter of 2019. Period-end loan balances were $920.1 billion.

Total average deposits for the quarter were $1.4 trillion, up $12.4 billion from the same period last year. Period-end deposits were $1.4 trillion, a decrease of $27.5 billion from the second quarter. This was driven by growth in consumer deposits, partially offset by a decline in commercial deposits.

Book value per common share was $38.99, and tangible book value per share was $32.23.

As for Goldman Sachs, it reported $9.68 in EPS on $10.78 billion in revenue, which compares with $4.79 in EPS and $8.32 billion in revenue from the same period last year. Analysts were calling for $5.57 in EPS and $9.46 billion in revenue for the investment house this quarter.

During the third quarter, the firm’s Investment Banking segment generated quarterly net revenues of $1.97 billion, including the second highest quarterly net revenues in equity underwriting. Goldman Sachs ranked first in worldwide announced and completed mergers and acquisitions, worldwide equity and equity-related offerings, common stock offerings and initial public offerings for the year to date.

Global Markets generated quarterly net revenues of $4.55 billion, reflecting continued strength in Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities and Equities. Asset Management generated quarterly net revenues of $2.77 billion, reflecting strong performance in equity investments.

Consumer & Wealth Management generated quarterly net revenues of $1.49 billion, reflecting record net revenues in consumer banking and continued strength in wealth management.

Book value per share came in at $229.49 at the end of the quarter, an increase from $218.82 at the end of the same period last year.

Wells Fargo stock traded down about 3% Wednesday morning, at $23.95 in a 52-week range of $22.00 to $54.75. The consensus price target is $30.05.

Goldman Sachs stock was up less than 1% to $212.48. The 52-week range is $130.85 to $250.46, and the consensus analyst target is $250.13.

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