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GS · Forward model · Global Banking & Markets · Bull case

What has to happen in Global Banking & Markets

Model as of

This page changes Global Banking & Markets inside the complete GS model. Every other vertical, corporate programme and valuation assumption stays in the selected portfolio case.

GS forward model
Horizon
Consolidated fair value $1,283.57 all other verticals held in this portfolio case
Final-quarter revenue $20.96B 75% of company revenue
Explicit segment contribution $129.27B EBITDA less segment capex, before corporate items

The flywheel converts: a backlog up against both the first quarter and year-end 2025, an AI capital-expenditure cycle in which the constraint is Goldman's own balance sheet rather than client demand, alternatives fundraising above $125bn, materially higher incentive fees in both remaining quarters, and an expense base that keeps printing operating leverage while headcount falls 2%. What this case does NOT reach is a permanent 25% ROTE: it gets Goldman to about 3.81x tangible book, an all-time-high multiple on a franchise earning first-half-2026 returns, not a re-rating onto a different business. Result: $1,283.57 a share, +23.3%, at a 9.75% cost of equity and a 10.06x exit, which is a 13x P/E on net earnings.

Global Banking & Markets

Basis quarter$15.52B
Final quarter$20.96B
Implied CAGR+6%
Final revenue mix75%

Advisory, equity and debt underwriting, FICC and Equities. $15,520M of net revenues in the basis quarter, 76.3% of the firm and 53% above a year earlier. The mix inside it matters more than the total: financing revenues across FICC and Equities were $4.5B, up 62% year on year and 37% of combined FICC and Equities revenue, which is a balance-sheet business constrained by capital rather than a trading business constrained by volatility. Goldman publishes revenue sub-totals for this segment but never pre-tax earnings by sub-line, so it is projected as sequential growth on reported segment revenue and is not split.

Last four quarters
2025 Q3 $10.17B Reported
2025 Q4 $10.41B Reported
2026 Q1 $12.74B Reported
2026 Q2 $15.52B Reported
AdvisoryEquity underwritingDebt underwritingFICC intermediationFICC financingEquities intermediationEquities financingOther (relationship lending, transaction banking, GBM investing)
Sequential growth +0.5%/qtr decaying toward +1.2% 0.5% holds an all-time-record level. The trailing four-quarter average sequential was +11.75%.
Global Banking & Markets

Latest: $20.96B (2031Q2E)

Period Value
2023Q1 $8.47B
2023Q2 $7.18B
2023Q3 $7.98B
2023Q4 $6.37B
2024Q1 $9.73B
2024Q2 $8.26B
2024Q3 $8.56B
2024Q4 $8.51B
2025Q1 $10.74B
2025Q2 $10.13B
2025Q3 $10.17B
2025Q4 $10.41B
2026Q1 $12.74B
2026Q2 $15.52B
2026Q3E $15.68B
2026Q4E $15.85B
2027Q1E $16.04B
2027Q2E $16.25B
2027Q3E $16.47B
2027Q4E $16.71B
2028Q1E $16.95B
2028Q2E $17.21B
2028Q3E $17.48B
2028Q4E $17.75B
2029Q1E $18.04B
2029Q2E $18.33B
2029Q3E $18.63B
2029Q4E $18.94B
2030Q1E $19.26B
2030Q2E $19.59B
2030Q3E $19.92B
2030Q4E $20.26B
2031Q1E $20.61B
2031Q2E $20.96B

Assumptions & reasoning

  • A growth driver, not a capacity one. Prime balances, the $188B loan book and the investment-banking backlog are disclosed as levels or as direction, but Goldman publishes no priced volume series the engine could charge a yield on.
  • The 48.32% margin is PRE-TAX EARNINGS - $7,499M on $15,520M - already net of $7,946M of segment operating expenses AND of the segment's own $75M provision for credit losses. It is not EBITDA and it is not pre-provision profit: pre-provision would read 48.80% and would take the credit cycle out of the model.
  • This segment carries 74% of the firm's $102M provision, on wholesale loans rather than consumer credit. That is a different risk from a card book: lumpy and single-name, not cyclical and diversified. The provision has swung from -$44M to +$248M inside the fourteen quarters.
  • Terminal 42.0% gives back 6.3 points. The 2024-25 blended pre-tax margin was 41.95% and the fourteen-quarter blend 41.61%; 48.32% is the highest print in the whole window.
  • SEASONALITY TESTED AND REJECTED. Ratio to a centred four-quarter moving average gives [1.1509, 0.9866, 0.9880, 0.8745], signal 0.2764 against a worst window-to-window spread of 0.1182 - a 2.34:1 ratio that PASSES the spread gate. It is rejected on stability instead: ratio-to-year-mean puts Q4 at 0.9415 rather than 0.8745, the per-year Q4 ratios are 0.850, 0.970 and 1.005 so the weakness is disappearing rather than repeating, raw Q4-versus-Q3 was -20.2%, -0.7% and +2.4%, and the 2025 Q4 window reaches into the accelerating 2026 quarters. Applying the factors anyway prints $1,061.03 against $1,049.13, so the decision is worth 1.1%.
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