Goldman Sachs (GS-N)

Shares are rising this morning after reporting a solid beat. He never felt like this stock went away or slumped. He always believed in it and its CEO. They identified their mistakes and corrected them. Are best in breed.

Reported a good quarter this morning, so he bought more shares. GS is back, doing what they do best which is investment banking and the capital markets. They were paring back businesses last year and were less successfully. ROE is double in 2024 over last to 14.7%. They beat fixed-income revenues and equity trading revenue. They hit it out of the park. Is the top U.S. bank.

Sell a quarter because he's more worried about a market pullback than a GS pullback. Their next quarter will be great.

Loves it. Are starting to see the IPO market open up, as well as the private market, which are high-margin businesses.

It's a microcosm of corporate America: you fall down but what matters is how to rise up. The CEO has confronted his mistakes and divorced unprofitable businesses. When rates decline later this year, capital markets and M&A deals will open up and GS will benefit; they are well-positioned.

With its strong retail franchise with the brokerage business, plus very large asset management, MS has done a way better job than GS.

Yesterday, they reported a strong EOS beat, up 65% YOY, and new revenues up 7% YOY. Global markets, including investment banking, was lacklustre. Their real driver of growth was asset and wealth management which saw 23% new revenues growth. Meanwhile, it reduced staff to manage costs, but return on equity disappointed. Bottom line: after things settle, more upside lies ahead.

Underwriting is bottoming. You can position here for 2024.

He regrets selling positions in MS and BAC and wants to get back in. He does want to sell some of his JPM. Wants to return to MS and GS, because he thinks their stock-trading revenue can excel. As for Citi, their revenues are way down, so he'll pass.

As rates decline, banks will benefit, but he likes GS for its exposure to capital markets.

She owned this for a long time, just sold it. What catalyst is there to drive this higher? She sees headwinds instead. She doesn't like the financials, late cycle. IPOs won't be meaningful to their earnings.

Has reduced his position. Not the time to buy any banks. He's hanging on. Nothing is going right with it, though, and it could decline further it bottoms. Keep an eye on interest rates, which could stay high for longer. .

He sold it when Instacard started to falter; that trade was over. He decreased his position and is no longer a core position.

It remains too dependent on proprietary trading and investment banking.

He added to it a few weeks ago. Their well-positioned to benefit from the capital cycle returning (more IPOs). They have a deep bench.