Goldman Sachs reported sales and earnings Tuesday that were lighter than a year ago but came in well above Wall Street expectations.
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The Goldman Sachs booth on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange
The financial heavyweight reported net income of $2.74 billion, or $1.56 a share, against $3.29 billion, or $5.59 a share, in the same period last year.
Revenue came in at $11.89 billion, against sales of $12.77 billion a year ago.
Analysts who follow the company had expected earnings of 82 cents a share on sales of $10.22 billion, according to a survey conducted by Thomson Reuters.
Jeffery Harte, managing director at Sandler O'Neill, pointed to strength in trading revenues as good news for Goldman shares.
"I think the one big conclusion you can take from this is that trading, and specifically fixed income trading, is not dead — it was a pretty good quarter for them there," Harte said.
The firm's results, however, were hit by the repurchase of $5 billion of preferred shares from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. The redemption resulted in a special preferred dividend of $1.64 billion. Excluding that charge, the bank would have earned $4.38 a share.
Shares of Goldman, which closed regular Monday trade at $153.78 , were last more than 3 percent higher in pre-market trading.
Get real-time quotes for Goldman Sachs here.