Goldman CEO David Solomon raises financial targets, takes victory lap after crushing 2020 goals

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon took a moment to bask in his firm’s recent performance before raising the company’s medium-term financial targets.

Solomon on Thursday reminded the audience at a Credit Suisse conference that back in 2020, at Goldman’s first-ever Investor Day, he faced doubts after revealing a set of goals for a more profitable and efficient firm. But Goldman blew past those targets last year after a historic surge in trading and investment banking activity spurred on by the coronavirus pandemic.

“Two years ago now was there was a lot of skepticism around the targets we laid out and what we thought we could accomplish,” Solomon said. “When you look at our progress, obviously, we way exceeded the returns.”

Goldman’s new guidance for returns on tangible common shareholders’ equity is 15% to 17%, up from the 14% target that the bank had set in 2020. Still, the firm far exceeded those targets in 2021, when returns topped 24%.

The bank also increased its 2024 targets for gathering investments and fees in asset management and wealth management as well as transaction and consumer banking revenues.  

Shares of the bank dipped 1.9%, tracking the 2.1% decline of the KBW Bank Index.