Goldman Sachs, founded in 1869, is the world's second-largest investment bank by revenue, with $1.65 billion in fees collected through the first quarter of 2024. Learn who owns Goldman Sachs, who runs the banking behemoth, and how you can own shares of the bank.
Who is the owner?
Who is the owner of Goldman Sachs?
The list of services provided by mammoth investment bank Goldman Sachs (GS 1.36%) is almost as long as the list of people and institutions who own Goldman Sachs shares. The bank offers investment banking, global investment, and equity and fixed-income investment services, direct-to-consumer banking functions, such as lending and investing, credit card deals, and point-of-sale financing. Given the bank's wide range of services, it's no wonder that it's the second-largest investment bank by revenue. Goldman reported net earnings of $8.52 billion on $46.25 billion in net revenue in 2023.
Founded by German immigrant Marcus Goldman in 1869, the bank had humble beginnings in a one-room basement office next to a coal chute. It grew steadily through the decades and took its first steps into the initial public offering (IPO) market in 1906 for the iconic Sears, Roebuck, & Co. The bank gets credit for being among the first institutions to focus on price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios rather than book values to value companies.
In addition to its financial clout, Goldman has become politically powerful over the last few years, with several key executives serving in the federal government:
- Robert Rubin worked as Treasury secretary for former President Bill Clinton.
- Henry Paulson served as former President George W. Bush's chief financial advisor.
- Steve Mnuchin held the top Treasury Department job under former President Donald Trump.
- Jon Corzine was a U.S. senator from New Jersey from 2001 to 2006 and governed the Garden State from 2006 to 2010.
The company took a massive hit to its reputation during the 2007-2009 financial crisis that led to the Great Recession when it was discovered that Goldman had been pushing subprime mortgage-backed securities to investors, even when it knew there was a dangerous bubble in the U.S. housing market. The bank took much of the blame for the financial crisis, with author Matt Taibbi describing it as "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."
Investing in bank stocks has become a bit less of a sure thing in the last couple of years. Although it's not accurate to describe Goldman as having fallen on hard times lately, some financial metrics have fallen over the last four years. Earnings per share have plunged 61.5% since 2021, and net income has fallen almost 63%. During 2023, the bank cut as many as 3,200 employees, including 125 managing directors.
Largest shareholders
Who are Goldman Sachs' largest shareholders?
The investment bank was founded in 1869 as a family business by Marcus Goldman. His son-in-law, Samuel Sachs, joined the company in 1882. Goldman Sachs was privately held until launching an IPO in 1999. At the time, the offering was one of the largest financial services IPOs in U.S. history, with 69 million shares sold -- about 15% of the company's value -- and $3.66 billion raised.
Since then, the largest shareholders in the bank have been institutional investors. All told, insiders own about 0.5% of Goldman stock, with a quartet leading the list:
- David Viniar is the lead director of the Goldman board of directors. His 824,304 shares are worth about $330 million. Viniar was the bank's chief financial officer (CFO) and executive vice president from 1999 until 2013.
- Thomas K. Montag joined the Goldman board in 2023. He is a former chief operating officer (COO) of Bank of America (BAC 0.2%) and head of global sales and trading at Merrill Lynch. Montag held several senior roles at Goldman from 1999 to 2007. He holds 206,716 shares worth about $83 million.
- John F.W. Rogers is executive vice president, chief of staff, and secretary to the Goldman board. Rogers has held White House posts under former presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush. His 125,754 shares are valued at approximately $50 million.
- David Solomon is the chief executive officer of Goldman. He is a former bond salesman for Drexel Burnham and Bear Stearns and has worked at Goldman since the late 1990s. He has been CEO since late 2018. His 124,782 shares are worth about $50 million.
Institutional investors make up the largest share -- almost 73% -- of Goldman ownership. The biggest holders of its stock are:
- Vanguard Group, a privately held investment manager, owns 28.6 million shares valued at $11.71 billion, about 8.8% of Goldman's outstanding shares. Vanguard has more than $7.5 trillion in assets under management. The company, founded by John Bogle, is the largest provider of mutual funds and the second-largest provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the world.
- BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) holds about 23 million shares worth an estimated $9.4 billion, about 7.1% of the investment bank's outstanding shares. The multinational investment company has about $10 trillion in assets under management, more than any other asset manager. It became a publicly traded company in 1999.
- State Street Corporation (SST 4.09%) has about 19.6 million shares of Goldman, worth an estimated $8 billion. Its holdings account for a little more than 6% of the investment bank's outstanding shares. State Street is a Boston-based global financial services and bank holding company with about $3.7 trillion in assets under management.
- Geode Capital Management holds about 6.2 million shares of Goldman, worth roughly $2.5 billion. Geode, whose holdings account for about 1.9% of the investment bank's outstanding shares, was spun off by Fidelity in 2003. The company has more than $1 trillion in assets under management.
- Capital World Investors reports holding slightly more than 6 million shares of Goldman, worth roughly $2.4 billion, or 1.8% of the investment bank's outstanding shares. Capital World is a division of the privately held Capital Group, which has more than $2.5 trillion in assets under management.
Board of directors
Who is on Goldman Sachs' board of directors?
As of early April 2024, the board included 11 people:
- David Solomon is the chairman and CEO of Goldman. He has been a director since 2018, when he took over the investment bank's top job.
- David Viniar is the investment bank board's independent lead director and chair of its governance committee. He has been on the board since retiring from Goldman in 2013.
- Michele Burns has been on the Goldman board since October 2011. She was chairman, CFO, and CEO of Mercer (MERC 3.94%) and also worked as executive vice president and CFO at Delta Air Lines (DAL 0.29%). She is a board member of Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD 0.16%) and Etsy (ETSY -2.52%).
- Mark Flaherty joined the Goldman board in December 2014. He is a former vice chairman, partner, and senior vice president of Wellington Management Company, as well as director of global equity trading at Standish, Ayer, and Wood.
- Kimberley Harris has been on the board since May 2021. She is chair of the compensation committee. Harris is the executive vice president of Comcast (CMCSA -4.78%). She worked as the principal deputy counsel for the White House during the Obama administration.
- Kevin Johnson joined the board in October 2022. Johnson worked as president, COO, and CEO of Starbucks (SBUX 0.8%) from 2009 until 2022. He has also held executive positions at Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) and Microsoft (MSFT 0.54%).
- Ellen Kullman is chair of the board's public responsibilities committee. She joined the board in December 2016. Kullman is a former chairman and CEO of E.I. du Pont de Nemours (DD 1.3%) and is also on the boards of Amgen (AMGN -0.64%) and Dell Technologies (DELL 2.24%).
- Lakshmi Mittal became a Goldman board member in June 2008. He is also on the board of ArcelorMittal S.A. (MT 0.18%), where he served as president, chairman, and chief executive officer between 2006 and 2021.
- Thomas Montag is chairman of the board's risk committee. He joined the Goldman board in July 2023 after spending his career at Goldman and Bank of America. Montag is CEO and director of Rubicon Carbon.
- Peter Oppenheimer has been a member of the Goldman board since March 2014. He has been a top executive at Automatic Data Processing (ADP 0.79%) and Apple (AAPL 0.07%), where he retired after working as a senior vice president and CFO in 2014.
- Jan Tighe joined the Goldman board in December 2018. She also serves on the board of General Motors (GM 1.99%) and Huntsman (HUN 2.85%). Tighe is a retired Navy vice admiral who last served as deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare.
How to invest
How to invest in Goldman Sachs
So, you're interested in investing money in Goldman? Here's how to start. To buy shares of Goldman Sachs, you'll need a brokerage account. If you still need to open one, these are some of the best-rated brokers and trading platforms. Here's a step-by-step guide to buying Goldman Sachs stock using the five-star-rated platform Fidelity.
Fidelity makes it easy to buy stocks. Its website offers a video tutorial and a step-by-step guide. Here's a screenshot of how to place a stock trade with Fidelity:
Next, do your homework, especially about bank stocks. You may want to skip buying Goldman Sachs stock if:
- You believe that deals for investment bankers will continue to slump.
- You don't like many of the companies that Goldman is advising.
- You expect that Goldman's workforce trimming will hurt its bottom line.
- You're wary of Goldman's reputation.
- You don't know much about the bank's business.
- Your portfolio already has enough financial stocks.
On the other hand, you may want to go ahead and buy Goldman stock if:
- You think Goldman will continue to be one of the world's top investment banks.
- You believe interest rates will fall and spark renewed interest in mergers and acquisitions.
- You expect Goldman's political connections will continue to benefit shareholders.
- You'd like to balance your portfolio with a stock focused on investment banking.
- You think Goldman's stock is undervalued and will rise even higher.
- You're optimistic about Goldman's future.
As with any other investment, there's a short answer to why you might consider investing in this stock: It depends. Factors that might affect your decision include the level of your portfolio diversification, personal risk tolerance, company and industry knowledge, and assessment of Goldman's competitive position.
If you've decided the pros of investing in the company outweigh the cons, you'll need to place an order to become a Goldman Sachs shareholder.
To place an order, you'll need to specify the following information:
- The number of shares you want to buy or the amount you want to invest to purchase fractional shares.
- The ticker symbol (GS for Goldman Sachs).
- Whether you want to place a limit order or a market order. Know the difference between a market order and a limit order. The Motley Fool recommends using a market order since it guarantees you buy shares immediately at the market price.
Before you hit the "Place Order" button, figure out your budget. Are you in a position to invest in the market? Have you paid down high-interest credit card balances and created an emergency fund? How much can you spend? Do you want to buy all your Goldman stock at once, or periodically, with dollar-cost averaging? These are all very good questions for investors to ask -- and answer.
Related investing topics
The bottom line on Goldman Sachs
There's no doubt that Goldman Sachs is one of the world's preeminent investment banks. It's worked to recover its reputation in the wake of the 2007-2009 financial crisis, and Goldman continues to be a powerful political force. But the last three years have been difficult for the investment banking business, and while Goldman is technically now a bank holding company, its bottom-line numbers have slumped.
As always, review your personal financial situation carefully before investing in stocks. If you decide to buy Goldman stock, you should be optimistic about the company's future, understand its business and direction, and be prepared to stick to a proven buy-and-hold strategy.
FAQ
Goldman Sachs FAQ
Which family owns Goldman Sachs?
Goldman Sachs has been a publicly held company since 1999. It is not owned by any one family.
Who is the largest individual shareholder of Goldman Sachs?
The insider with the largest amount of Goldman shares is David Viniar, the lead director of the investment bank's board of directors. His 824,304 shares are worth about $330 million.
Is Goldman Sachs privately owned?
Goldman Sachs has been publicly held since its 1999 IPO.
Who runs Goldman Sachs?
David Solomon is the chairman and CEO of Goldman. He took over the investment bank's top job in 2018.
