Reuters – Goldman Sachs could post its first ever quarterly loss as a public company in December, as market turmoil weighs on revenue for investment banking businesses and forces asset writedowns.
One Wall Street analyst, Glenn Schorr at UBS, predicted a loss for the bank on Friday. The potential for a quarterly loss, combined with the generally weaker environment for financial institutions, has some investors wondering if Goldman Sachs really deserves to trade at a higher valuation than Morgan Stanley, the other major independent investment bank that is now a commercial bank.
Goldman’s shares trade at about 1.1 times their tangible book value, while Morgan Stanley’s shares trade at less than half their tangible book value. A spokesman for Goldman declined to comment.
Goldman Sachs is legendary for its risk management expertise. In early 2007, it saw the storm clouds gathering above the subprime mortgage market and positioned itself to profit from the expected home loan downturn.
