Goldman Sachs Group Inc. may be the top bank for advising many of the world’s largest companies but its own financial reporting leaves much to be desired, according to Wells Fargo & Co. analyst Mike Mayo.
(Bloomberg) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc. may be the top bank for advising many of the world’s largest companies but its own financial reporting leaves much to be desired, according to Wells Fargo & Co. analyst Mike Mayo.
Responding to the Wall Street bank’s update of its financial disclosures last Friday, Mayo issued a scathing critique, saying it should provide far more detail on how its new divisional reporting compared to past periods. Goldman Sachs released the new information days before the release of fourth-quarter earnings — a measure that didn’t give the market enough time to digest the changes, Mayo said.
“We view Goldman’s detail around new segment reporting as falling short for a company that has been public for 24 years and acts as a global leader in advising other firms,” Mayo wrote in a note to clients published minutes before the bank reported its latest results.
Last week, Goldman set out its updated reporting structure, with the bank providing more information on its consumer-facing businesses now dubbed Platform Solutions. The bank said in its filing that the new unit had racked up more than $1.2 billion in pretax losses in the first nine months of last year.
Mayo criticized the disclosure saying that the historical comparisons provided were not sufficient. “Goldman gives restated historical data for only 4 prior quarters and 2 prior years,” wrote Mayo.
“Goldman is not an IPO company — GS has been public for 24 years and in business for over 150,” Mayo wrote. “GS should give investors 8 quarters at a minimum, in our view. Even Citigroup provides 12 quarters.”
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