Goldman Sachs Q2 Profit Drops On Litigation Expenses

Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS) reported a drop in its profit for the second quarter, hurt by litigation expenses.The New York-based bank posted quarterly net income of $1.05 billion, or $1.98 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $2.04 billion, or $4.10 per share. The latest quarter included $2.77 per share reduction from litigation provisions.Its revenue slipped to $9.07 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $3.89 per share on revenue of $8.78 billion.The average estimate among 76 Estimize users was for earnings of $3.98 per share and revenue of $9.01 billion.Net revenue in Investment Banking climbed 13 percent year-over-year to $2.02 billion for the second quarter, while revenue in Institutional Client Services slipped 6 percent to $3.60 billion.Net revenue in Investing & Lending fell 13 percent to $1.80 billion for the second quarter, while net revenue in Investment Management surged 14 percent to $1.65 billion.Operating expenses for the second quarter rise 16 percent to $7.34 billion.During the quarter, Goldman Sachs repurchased 1.2 million shares of its common stock for a total cost of $245 million.Annualized return on average common shareholders' equity came in at 4.8 percent for the quarter.As of June 30, 2015, total assets were $860 billion, versus $865 billion as of March 31, 2015."We are pleased with our performance for the quarter," said Lloyd C. Blankfein, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "While uncertainty in the EU weighed on investors' level of conviction, many of our businesses continued to benefit from generally improving economic conditions and healthy client activity."Goldman Sachs shares fell 0.92 percent to $211.00 in pre-market trading.