Goldman Sachs Net Worth: Market Cap, Stock Price & More

Goldman Sachs has maintained its status as a leader in the financial industry since 1869. For over 150 years, the investment bank has maximized shareholder value, highlighting its expertise and resilience. As of September 2024, Goldman Sachs has a net worth of $163.45 billion and provides valuable strategic insights to business owners and potential opportunities to investors.

Our experts at Business2Community scoured a wide range of sources to deliver a comprehensive overview of Goldman Sachs’s history and how it’s net worth reached its current point. Read on to discover the financial giant’s key milestones, controversies, and more.

What Is Goldman Sachs’s Net Worth?

As of September 2024 Goldman Sachs’s net worth, also known as market capitalization or market cap, is $163.45 billion.

Goldman Sachs releases its annual financial reports in late March each year, with the last report released on March 15, 2024.

Over the decades, Goldman Sachs’s net worth has increased, reflecting the company’s growth and dominance in the financial advisory services industry. In 1986, the company hit $1 billion in annual revenue and became the fourth-largest Wall Street company by capitalization.

In May 1999, Goldman Sachs launched its initial public offering (IPO) on the NYSE with the ticker symbol GS. The IPO raised over $3.6 billion, making it the second-largest in US financial history at the time. Shares were initially priced at $53 but surged by 33% to close at $70.35 on the first day of trading.

Since its IPO, the firm’s market cap has increased by 412% from $32.8 billion. The stock price has shown steady growth, reaching over $181 in 2007, $230 in 2018, and $400 in 2021.

In July 2024, Goldman Sachs’ stock price hit a new milestone of over $500 per share. As of August, the average price target was $529.87, with forecasts ranging from a low of $464.00 to a high of $571.00. This represented a 5.08% potential increase from the last price of $504.26.

Goldman Sachs Revenue

Goldman Sachs’s first year of business in 1869, generated $5 million from commercial paper trading. By 1890, the company had grown significantly, turning over $30 million.

After weathering significant challenges like wars, economic recessions, and market volatility, Goldman Sachs’ revenue crossed the $1 billion mark in the late 1980s. By 2000, the company’s annual revenue had soared past $16 billion.

During the 2008 global financial crisis, the firm’s revenue fell by 56% to $19 billion, before rebounding to $45 billion in 2009. Throughout the 2010s, the company’s profits fluctuated, eventually crossing the $10 billion mark in 2018.

Goldman Sachs’s performance held steady during the pandemic years, with the firm’s revenue making gains of 13% to over $44 billion in 2020 and hitting record highs of over $60 billion in 2021. Revenues moderated over the next 2 years, declining to $47 billion in 2022 and $46 billion in 2023.

In the first quarter of 2024, Goldman Sachs reported net revenues of $14.21 billion, up 6%, and a net income of $4.1 billion, up 28% year-over-year.

Goldman Sachs Dividend History

Since going public in 1999, Goldman Sachs has declared and paid dividends. The company has consistently increased its quarterly dividend five times in the last five years with a 29.39% five-year annualized dividend growth rate. As of August 2024, Goldman Sachs had a trailing twelve-month (TTM) dividend payout of $11.00 per share, with a dividend yield of 2.18%.

In terms of stock buybacks, Goldman Sachs has repurchased up to 605 million shares of its common stock since 2000. In February 2023, the company announced a $30 billion share repurchase program, replacing its previous plan.

Who Owns Goldman Sachs?

As a publicly traded company, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is owned by various shareholders. With an 8.96% ownership stake, the Vanguard Group was the company’s largest shareholder as of June 2024. This was closely followed by Blackrock Inc. at 7.33% and State Street Corporation with a 6.15% stake.

Founded in 1869 by Marcus Goldman, Goldman Sachs started as a small business buying and selling promissory notes in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the company’s reputation and client base grew, laying the foundation for one of the most influential financial institutions in the world.

For the majority of its first century, Goldman Sachs operated as a partnership. The company briefly functioned as a joint stock association between 1922 and 1927 before returning to its unique and advantageous partnership structure.

Goldman Sachs received several capital infusions before eventually going public in 1999. This includes $500 million from Sumitomo Bank, $225 million from seven insurance companies in 1989, and $500 million from the Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate between 1992 and 1994.

Who is the Goldman Sachs CEO?

The CEO of Goldman Sachs is David Solomon. Solomon first joined the company in 1999 and held a variety of leadership positions before his appointment as chief executive in 2018. Solomon received $31 million in compensation for 2023, up 24% from $25 million in 2022. His earnings comprised a $2 million base salary, a bonus of $8.7 million in cash, and $20.3 million in performance-linked stock.

The CEO’s 5-year tenure has not been without controversy. Solomon’s leadership style has been criticized by former and current coworkers, who cite unrealistic demands of 100-hour work weeks and gender biases. As a result, since his appointment, over 200 partners including division heads, members of the C-suite, and rising stars once considered contenders to serve as future CEOs, have left the firm.

The CEO also made the news for his side career as a DJ under the name DJ D-Sol, which many argued brought the image-sensitive financial institution into disrepute. Particularly, in 2020, Solomon headlined a crowded Hamptons charity event at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting an apology to the Goldman board.

In 2022, Solomon stopped doing controversial DJ gigs but was put on blast again for allegedly misusing company resources. The CEO is said to have used company jets seven times in seven weeks to visit locations like Barbuda and the Bahamas while reprimanding workers for not logging more hours in the office.

In 2023 and 2024, influential proxy advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass, Lewis & Co. advised that shareholders limit Solomon’s power and restore corporate governance by splitting the CEO and chairman roles. However, in both years, Goldman Sachs shareholders rejected the proposals.

Goldman Sachs’s Company History

Headquartered in New York, Goldman Sachs Group is a global investment banking, securities, and investment management firm that delivers a broad range of financial services to a large and diversified client base including corporations, financial institutions, governments, and high-net-worth individuals.

The renowned bank achieves this through three broad segments: global markets, asset management, and platform solutions. Below, we track Goldman Sachs’s journey to becoming one of the world’s top investment companies.

1869-1959: Goldman Sachs’s Journey Begins

In 1869, Marcus Goldman first pioneered the commercial paper business. The business model involved purchasing local merchants’ promissory notes and selling them to New York’s commercial banks.

By the time the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1896, Goldman Sachs was a leader in commercial paper sales. It had also established relationships with financial firms in major European capitals, providing an array of services that included foreign exchange, letters of credit, gold shipments, and arbitrage.

In the early 1900s, the firm began to establish its investment banking business. Through its first public transactions, Goldman Sachs made equity and debt securities more attractive to investors. Soon, the price-to-earnings ratio became an industry standard, positioning Goldman Sachs as an innovator in the industry.

By 1922, Goldman Sachs was a national firm with offices in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and St.Louis. The firm’s rapidly expanding underwriting activities also included clients such as F. W. Woolworth, Merck, and General Foods.

With the Great Depression and World War II, the 30s and 40s proved turbulent and difficult for the bank. However, by the late 1950s, the bank had introduced block trading and formed a New Business Department.

Goldman Sachs had also acted as a managing underwriter of the largest common stock and industrial bond issues of the period such as Ford’s $657 million IPO and Sears Roebuck’s $350 million debenture offering.

1960-1989: Goldman Sachs Expands Globally

In the 1960s, Goldman Sachs was a leader in private finance and municipal finance. The company also created a mergers and acquisitions department and a real estate department.

By the 80s, Goldman Sachs had also taken its operations international, with offices in London, Tokyo, and Zurich. The firm had also launched new financial products and pioneered innovative risk management strategies, including the use of futures, options, and swaps.

The company also strengthened its position in the global financial services industry through several strategic moves such as the 1981 acquisition of of J. Aron & Company, a commodities trading firm, and a $500 million landmark partnership deal with Japanese conglomerate, Sumitomo Bank Ltd in 1986.

Goldman Sachs ushered in the 90s with greater reach in Europe and Japan by joining the Tokyo Stock Exchange, launching equities trading in Tokyo, and opening a banking subsidiary in Japan.

1990-2009: Goldman Sachs Goes Public

By 1999, when Goldman Sachs was taken public, it was the largest private investment bank in the US and had guided hundreds of clients through institutional transformation since 1906.

That year, the company acquired Hull Trading Company for $531 million as part of its shift towards electronic trading. It also acquired Spear, Leeds, & Kellogg, one of the largest specialist firms on the NYSE for $6.3 billion.

Over the next decade, Goldman Sachs’s leadership position in the US, Europe, and Asia allowed it to operate at the center of the global economy and to participate in the growth of key developing markets around the world.

The company also navigated considerable turbulence, increasing its profitability even as financial markets adjusted to the collapse of the high-tech bubble, several high-profile corporate scandals, and the 2008 global financial crisis.

In response to the crisis and increased regulatory scrutiny, Goldman Sachs transitioned from an investment bank to a bank holding company. While the move provided access to Federal Reserve funding and greater stability, it subjected the bank to stricter regulations.

2010-2019: Goldman Sachs Ventures into Consumer Banking

Amid changes brought on by globalization, consolidation, technological transformation, and increased regulatory scrutiny, Goldman Sachs prioritized strategic growth, opening new offices in:

• Mumbai
• Sao Paulo
• Dubai
• Doha
• Tel Aviv
• Riyadh
• Warsaw
• Amsterdam

In 2013, Goldman Sachs acquired the stable value business of Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, with total assets under supervision of $21.6 billion. This strategic move aimed to complement the firm’s existing stable value business, leverage new talent, and gain access to potential client relationships.

Between 2014 and 2019, Goldman Sachs expanded its technology initiatives and entered the consumer market. Key developments included:

• The launch of Marquee in 2014 for advanced trading and risk management.
• The launch of Marcus in 2016 to break into consumer banking, offering personal loans, online deposits, and other unique digital banking services.
• A partnership with Apple to launch Apple Card in 2019.

During this period, the bank also made key strategic acquisitions to fuel its growth. Notably, this included fintech startups Honest and Clarity Money for undisclosed amounts, Boyd Corporation for $3 billion, and United Capital Financial Advisers LLC for $750 million.

2020-Present: Goldman Sachs Recalibrates

In January 2020, Goldman Sachs held its first Investor Day and laid out a comprehensive strategy to strengthen and expand its operations. This included investing in its core business and pursuing strategic growth opportunities across its segments.

Despite the challenging operating environment created by the global pandemic, Goldman Sachs capitalized on market volatility, raking in revenue of $50 billion in 2020 and a record $60 billion in 2021.

In August 2021, Goldman Sachs acquired NN Investment Partners for $1.9 billion from NN Group, expanding its European business and bringing assets under supervision in the region to over $600 billion.

To grow its consumer lending arm, the bank also acquired GreenSky for $2.24 billion.

2022 saw Goldman Sachs face challenges such as a slowdown in capital markets activity, reduced issuance volumes, and falling equity and fixed-income asset prices.

The company continued to make strategic investments in its technology and acquisitions to strengthen its long-term position. However, this strained the bank’s finances and resulted in mounting losses, particularly in its consumer segment.

After shareholders began to question the viability of its consumer business, Goldman Sachs announced changes to the business line in the third quarter of 2022, effectively dismantling Marcus.

In a January 2023 interview with CNBC, CEO David Solomon acknowledged the challenges with Goldman Sachs’s consumer business, stating…

In the consumer platforms, we did some things right. We didn’t execute on some others. We probably took on more than we should have, you know, too much, too quickly.

Later that year, the bank missed earnings estimates, the only one among the six major Wall Street banks to do so. It also incurred a $485 million write-down for its real-estate holdings and a $504 million loss related to the purchase of GreenSky. Overall, Goldman Sachs ended 2023 with its profits down nearly 33%.

By Q2 2024, a recovery was evident, with net earnings hitting $3.04 billion, an increase of 150% year-over-year. This was driven primarily by higher net revenues in the global banking and markets, and asset and wealth management divisions.

Goldman Sachs Controversies

Over the years, Goldman Sachs has been linked to several costly and damaging controversies. Notably, it played a key role in the 2008 financial crisis by creating and selling mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations. The bank denied wrongdoing, claiming customers were aware of its bets against mortgage-related securities and that it only used these bets to hedge against losses.

As the crisis unfolded, Goldman Sachs’s stellar reputation was damaged, and shares plummeted by over 75% from over $200 in late 2007 to below $50 by the end of 2008. Revenue also fell by 56% from a peak of $43 billion to just $19 billion. Profits also declined sharply, with the firm reporting a 58% drop in net earnings between 2007 to 2008.

After investigations by the United States Congress, the United States Department of Justice, and a lawsuit from the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Goldman Sachs paid a $550 million settlement in July 2010, for misleading its investors and profiting from the collapse of the mortgage market during the 2007–2008 financial crisis.

In agreeing to the highest-ever penalty paid by a Wall Street bank, Goldman Sachs acknowledged that its marketing materials for the subprime product contained incomplete information and committed to reforming its business practices.

By 2016, Goldman Sachs agreed to pay more than $5 billion to resolve allegations that it misled investors over residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) in the lead-up to the 2008 financial crisis. However, following the judgment, advocacy groups called it an injustice, arguing that the $5 billion fine was insignificant compared to Goldman Sachs’s recent profits.

In 2020, Goldman Sachs agreed to pay Malaysia $3.9 billion, and the US Government a further $2.9 billion, for its involvement in a corruption scandal involving a Malaysian investment fund, known as 1MDB.

In the wake of the scandal, CEO David Solomon and other top executives including CFO Stephen Scherr and COO John Waldron, took massive pay cuts. While none of the executives were involved in or aware of the company’s participation in any illicit activity at the time the firm arranged the 1MDB bond transactions, the Board considered the 1MDB matter an institutional and leadership failure, inconsistent with the high expectations held for the firm.

In May 2023, Goldman Sachs agreed to pay $215 million to resolve claims of pay discrimination and a “boys club” work culture that hindered the advancement of female employees. Filed by nearly 2,800 women in 2010, the case revealed that female employees at Goldman Sachs earned 20% less than their male counterparts, significantly higher than the 9.4% national gender pay gap.

What Can We Learn From Goldman Sachs?

Goldman Sachs’s powerful brand and reputation have given it an enduring competitive edge, allowing the bank to attract and retain clients, even in the volatile global financial landscape.

However, in recent years, the bank has been involved in several legal and regulatory scandals. These financial and investor protection violations have resulted in penalties of over $ 17.7 billion since 2000, damaged the company’s reputation, and shaken investor confidence, with a direct effect on Goldman Sachs’ net worth. The far-reaching impact of these scandals on Goldman Sachs underscores the need for robust accountability and ethical governance.

The bank’s resilience in the face of geopolitical uncertainties, changing regulations, and market fluctuations highlights the power of a global presence and diversified business model. However, the bank’s unsuccessful foray into consumer banking is a lesson in the importance of truly honing into the needs of consumers and tailoring services accordingly.

Strong leadership and culture have historically been key drivers of Goldman Sachs’ net worth growth, enabling the bank to navigate market challenges and maximize shareholder value.

Unfortunately, in recent years, poor leadership has tarnished the company’s reputation as a top employer, cost the company talent, and resulted in strategic missteps that have impacted the bank’s margins. This serves as a stark reminder of the critical role leadership plays in preserving culture, fostering vision, and ensuring long-term value creation.

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