rewrite this title Goldman Sachs tops estimates on record equities trading, better-than-expected investment banking

Goldman Sachs on Monday released first quarter results that topped expectations on record equities trading results and higher-than-expected investment banking revenue.

Here’s what the company reported:

Earnings: $17.55 per share vs. $16.49 LSEG estimateRevenue: $17.23 billion vs. $16.97 billion expected

The bank said profit climbed 19% from the year-earlier quarter to $5.63 billion, or $17.55 per share. Revenue climbed 14% to $17.23 billion.

Trading desks across Wall Street were busy at the start of the year as institutional investors set new positions against the churn of AI-led disruption in markets. For Goldman, that resulted in its biggest quarter from equities trading, helping propel the overall firm to its second-highest quarterly revenue.

Equities revenue jumped 27% to $5.33 billion, or about $420 million more than the StreetAccount estimate, on more financing activity to hedge fund clients in its prime brokerage business, as well as enabling more trading in cash equities products.

For Goldman Sachs, which gets most of its revenue from its trading and investment banking franchise, the main question analysts will have is about the impact of the Iran war that started on Feb. 28.

Disruptive events that impact the price of commodities — like the Iran conflict has — can sometimes force corporate clients to the sidelines, meaning a delay in mergers activity might have started. At the same time, the churn can lead to greater trading revenues thanks to moves in interest rates, bond prices and currencies.

Shares of the bank have climbed about 3% this year.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.