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WIPRO.NS 2026 Q3 财报电话会议

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Wipro Limited Q3 FY '26 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. Please note that this conference is being recorded, and the duration for today's call will be for 45 minutes. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Abhishek Jain, Vice President, Corporate Treasurer and Head of Investor Relations. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Abhishek Jain: Thank you, Yashashri. Warm welcome to our Q3 FY '26 earnings call. We'll begin the call with the business highlights and overview by Srinivas Pallia, our Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, followed by updates on financial overview by our CFO, Aparna Iyer. We also have our CHRO Saurabh Govil, and our Chief Strategist and Technology Officer, Hari Shetty this call. Afterwards, the operator will open the bridge for Q&A with our management team. Before Srini starts, let me draw your attention to the fact that during this call, we may make certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Private Securities Litigation Reform Act 1995. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are associated with uncertainties and risks, which may cause the actual results to differ materially from those expected. The uncertainties and risk factors are explained in our detailed filings with the SEC. Wipro does not undertake any obligation to update the forward-looking statements to reflect events and circumstances after the date of filing. The conference call will be archived and a transcript will be available on our website. With that, I would like to turn over the call to Srini. Srinivas Pallia: Thank you, Abhishek. Good evening, and thank you for joining us today. A very happy new year to you. Let me start with the broader environment. Before walking you through our quarterly performance and how we are positioning Wipro for an AI-first world. Across our client landscape, One thing is clear: organizations are reshaping priorities as AI influences how they plan, invest and operate. In fact, AI is now a standing board level mandate led by CEOs who recognized its ability to transform business models, unlock productivity, and create lasting competitive advantage. We are also seeing the same themes continue from past quarters in our deal pipeline. Cost optimization, vendor consolidation and a clear shift towards AI-led transformation. In quarter 3, we also marked two important milestones for Wipro. In December, we completed 80 years as a company. And in October, we celebrated 25 years of being listed on the New York Stock Exchange. These milestones reflect a legacy of strong governance, value and integrity, a foundation of trust that continues to differentiate us with our clients, partners and investors. Turning to quarter 3 performance. Our IT Services sequential revenue at $2.64 billion grew 1.4% on a constant currency basis. Excluding HARMAN DTS acquisition, revenue grew 0.6% in constant currency terms. Growth was broad-based with three of our four markets and four of our five sectors reporting sequential gain. Americas 1 delivered sequential and year-on-year growth driven by strong performance in health care, consumer and LatAm. Americas 2 saw a sequential decline. Europe grew sequentially in quarter 3, led by a ramp-up of the earlier announced mega deal. We're also seeing good traction in the U.K. and Western Europe. APMEA grew sequentially and year-on-year, led by India, Middle East and Southeast Asia. PFSI continues to show strong traction with the ramp-ups and new wins. CAPCO revenue was impacted by furloughs and remained flat year-on-year. Our operating margin at 17.6% expanded 0.4% over adjusted quarter 2 margin and 0.1% year-on-year. We closed $3.3 billion in total contract value and $871 million in large deal bookings. Last quarter, I introduced Wipro Intelligence. It's a unified approach to delivering AI-powered transformation across industries. This approach is anchored on 3 strategic pillars. First, industry platforms and solutions. We are building consulting-led AI solutions across sectors. For example, platforms like PayerAI in health care, NetOxygen for lending and AutoCortex for automotive. These solutions help streamline operations, improve customer outcomes and open up new avenues for growth. Second, our delivery platforms accelerate AI adoption at scale. WINGS, part of our Wipro Intelligence, brings AI into the heart of operations from application management to infrastructure support and business process operations. Vega adds AI-driven capabilities across the development life cycle from wide coding to model tuning and data pipeline. Together, these platforms help our clients modernize faster and operate smarter. Third, the Wipro Innovation Network. This connects our labs with partners, start-ups, universities and deep tech talent around the world. This ecosystem helps us explore new technologies and build solutions for the future. We launched innovation labs in 3 cities in the U.S., Australia and the Middle East, expanding our network, growing our global footprint and strengthening our role as a trusted innovation partner. We are also partnering with client GCCs to drive transformation and turn their call centers into high-impact innovation labs. Let me now share 2 examples of large deal wins that we had, leveraging Wipro Intelligence. First, a leading global education provider in the U.K., which is expanding rapidly across markets has chosen us as a strategic partner for a multiyear transformation. The goal is to build a single secure intelligent operating model that can scale with their growth and improve stakeholder experience. Using WINGS, we will standardize core processes, embed automation and AI-driven insights and optimize costs through a global delivery model. Second, a leading U.S.-based fitness technology company has selected Wipro for a multiyear transformation to accelerate its shift to a subscription-based wellness model and support global expansion. We will use both WINGS and Vega to embed AI and automation across IT infrastructure and core functions, driving efficiency, productivity, growth and better customer experiences. These engagements highlight a clear trend. Clients are bringing us in much earlier and recognizing the step change in the way we deliver and innovate. I would now like to update you on HARMAN DTS. First, a warm welcome to all HARMAN DTS employees joining us. With the acquisition now complete, we have added engineering and AI capabilities that truly complement what we do. This strengthens our engineering global business line and helps us accelerate AI-driven product innovation for clients. The integration also opens new regions and high-growth industries and allows us to take on larger, more complex transformation programs. As our teams come together, we look forward to entering new markets, building deeper client relationships and turning innovation into long-term value. Finally, guidance for quarter 4. In quarter 4, we are projecting sequential IT services revenue growth of 0% to 2.0% in constant currency. With that, I will hand it over to Aparna for the detailed financials. Thank you. Over to you, Aparna. Aparna Iyer: Thank you, Srini. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and wish you all a very, very happy new year. Let me share a quick update on the financial performance. Our IT services revenue for quarter 3 grew 1.4% sequentially in constant currency terms and 1.2% sequentially in reported currency. Revenue grew 0.2% year-on-year in reported terms, while declining 1.2% year-on-year in constant currency terms. Our constant currency revenue growth numbers included 0.8% as contribution from the HARMAN DTS acquisition that was closed in quarter 3 '26. Our operating margin for the quarter was 17.6%, an expansion of 40 basis points over the adjusted operating margin for Q2 and 10 basis points improvement on a year-on-year basis. I would also like to highlight that this is one of our best margin performance in the last several quarters. As we move to Q4, we will need to factor for incremental dilution of HARMAN DTS. That said, our endeavor, as always, will be to maintain the margins in a similar band as in the last few quarters. Adjusted net income for the quarter was INR 33.6 billion, and adjusted EPS for the quarter was at INR 3.21, an increase of 3.5% quarter-on-quarter and flat year-on-year. Moving on to our strategic market unit and sector performance. All the numbers I will share will be in constant currency. Americas grew 1.8% sequentially and grew 2.8% on a year-on-year basis. Americas 2 declined 0.8% sequentially and 5.2% on a year-on-year basis. Europe grew 3.3% sequentially and declined 4.6% on a year-on-year basis. APMEA grew 1.7% sequentially and 6.6% on a year-on-year basis. From a sector standpoint, BFSI grew 2.6% sequentially and 0.4% year-on-year. Health grew 4.2% sequentially and 1% year-on-year. Consumer grew 0.7% sequentially while declining 5.7% year-on-year. Tech and Com grew 4.2% sequentially and 3.5% on year-on-year terms. EMR declined 4.9% sequentially and 5.8% year-on-year. To give an added color, Capco was flat on a year-on-year basis in Q3. Before I move on to other financial parameters, I'd like to draw your attention to 2 specific one-off charges that we took in our P&L that also impacted our net income. These changes are not included in our -- these charges are not included in our IT Services segment margins. First is an increase of INR 302 crores towards gratuity expenses due to implementation of the new labor code. Second is regarding the restructuring exercise that was completed during the quarter and its impact is about INR 263 crores. I'd like to confirm that we've now completed the restructuring we wanted to do and do not anticipate any further charges. Our operating cash flow continued to be higher than the net income and stood at 135% of net income for quarter 3. Our gross cash, including investments is now at $6.5 billion. Our net other income in Q3 grew 15% sequentially. Accounting yield for the average investments held in India was at 7.2%. Our effective tax rate at 23.9% for Q3 '26 was better than the quarter -- same quarter last year of 24.4%. In terms of our guidance, we would like to reiterate what was stated by Srini. We expect our revenue from the IT Services business segment to be in the range of $2.635 billion to $2.688 billion. This translates to a sequential guidance of 0% to 2% in constant currency terms. Our guidance includes the incremental 2 months of revenue from HARMAN DTS. It is impacted by fewer working days in Q4 and certain delayed ramp-ups in some of the large deals that we won earlier in the year. Lastly, I'd like to share with you that in our recently concluded Board meeting, the Board of Directors have declared an interim dividend of INR 6 per share. With this payout, the cash distributed to our shareholders during the current financial year will be in excess of $1.3 billion, and we will be able to significantly exceed the minimum threshold that we had laid out in our capital allocation policy for the block ending financial year 2026. With that, I'm going to ask Yashasvi to open it up for Q&A. Operator: [Operator Instructions] We'll take our first question from the line of Nitin Padmanabhan from Investec. Nitin Padmanabhan: I had a couple of questions. So one is, I think this quarter, we lost almost $24 million of revenue in energy manufacturing resources. Just wanted your thoughts on that vertical. And how do you see the deal pipeline there? When do you think this can sort of turn around? The second is you alluded to some delays in ramp-ups impacting growth for next quarter to give some -- if you could give some color there. I presume this is related to the large deals. By when do you see this sort of beginning to ramp going forward? And third, where are we expecting to have the wage hike cycle. Those are the three. Aparna Iyer: So Nitin, I'll take your second question. And then on EMR, I'll ask Srini to answer, and on attrition, we have Saurabh here, he could take that on hike -- salary hike sorry. Nitin, in terms of our large deal conversion, each deal is different. One of the significant deal wins we had in Q4 of the last financial year, Phoenix is now fully ramped up and its revenue is fully realized and it's part of our quarter 3 performance. So that's on track. Some of the other deals, given the nature of the deals that we won, we've earlier also highlighted that these deals will take a few quarters to ramp up. So it's a question of it coming in through the course of the next few quarters. And therefore, we have called it out saying that in Q4, we may not be able to realize the full impact and therefore, we're calling it out. The other lever that is playing out is typically furloughs do come back, but Q4 continues to have lower working days, which is not really sometimes offsetting for those furloughs. And therefore, we've given you the guidance we have. But these deals should continue to convert. This deal a little different. We are confident it will take some time, but it will ramp up. Srini, You want to talk on EMR and then Saurabh can talk. Srinivas Pallia: Thanks, Aparna. Happy New year, Nitin. As far as EMR is concerned, our performance in this sector clearly has been impacted based on the macroeconomic uncertainty, we have seen some during tariff related and also some disrupted supply chain issues that we faced. However, our pipeline continues to remain strong in the sector. And essentially, the significant pipeline is around either vendor consolidation or cost takeout. And if I were to give a little bit of color to our specific segments, we have -- we see good momentum in energy in both Americas and Europe, and as far as manufacturing is concerned, we are seeing that in Europe. Also, our Capco business, which is doing some -- is also seeing some traction on the energy consulting side. So net-net, that's the situation that we have right now with the EMR, Nitin. Over to you, Saurabh. Saurabh Govil: Salary hikes, we will take a call in the next few weeks in terms of doing it. Our intention is to look at it this quarter, but we'll confirm it in the next couple of weeks. Nitin Padmanabhan: Perfect. That's helpful. Just one clarification. Do you think EMR should start getting back to growth sometime next year? That's the last question from my end. Srinivas Pallia: As far as EMR concerned, Nitin, I'll just repeat that. One is the pipeline. Like I said, specifically, we have good momentum on the pipeline in energy in both Americas and Europe. And as far as the manufacturing is concerned, it's in Europe. I think our focus right now is to convert these deals and then that should drive the revenue growth for us. And we are just getting focused on winning some of those deals, Nitin. Nitin Padmanabhan: Perfect, very helpful. Thank you so much and all the very best. Aparna Iyer: Thank you. Srinivas Pallia: Thank you. Operator: Next question is from the line of Vibhor Singhal from Nuvama Equities. Vibhor Singhal: Congrats on a solid performance. So Srini, my question was mainly on the -- basically the consumer vertical. You mentioned about the challenges in the EMR vertical. Banking has been doing well for us. In the consumer vertical, the growth was tepid in this quarter. We continue to decline on a Y-o-Y basis. How do you see the outlook in this vertical? We know this vertical also has been impacted a lot by the tariff uncertainty that has basically impacted the producers. But any -- in your conversation with the clients in terms of our interactions in the pipeline, do you see it turning the corner in coming quarters? Or do you think it will be some time before some clarity emerges in this vertical? Srinivas Pallia: Thanks, Vibhor. If you look at our consumer sector, clearly, if you recollect, I talked about it before as well that the tariffs had an impact on this, and that is reflected in our numbers. And also, if you reflect, there was a large SAP program, which was put on hold last year by our customers. And again, the client is yet to reinitiate. And that is one of the things that is impacting our year-on-year performance as well in this particular thing in this particular market sector. However, the overall trend that we see right now is mixed here for us in consumer. Some of the wins we had earlier this year is slowly ramping up, and that should support the growth in this sector. I do not have -- from a quarter 4 perspective, whatever growth we are seeing, that's baked into our forecast number. Vibhor Singhal: And similar thing on the -- basically [ tech ] vertical. I know it's not that big a vertical, but I think both tech and health vertical appear to be doing good. Any specific project ramp-up that we saw in this quarter, which led to this growth? Or do you think it's a growth which we can sustain in the coming quarters as well? Aparna Iyer: Sorry, which sector did you refer to Vibhor? Vibhor Singhal: Aparna tech and the health care verticals, both of them separately. Aparna Iyer: In some sense, in health care, we've been consistently doing well, and we've had both in our year-on-year performance. Seasonally, obviously, we have the open enrollment season that really does improve our health performance in Q3. So that has also added to the performance. In terms of our tech and, we've continued to do well in some of our large technology players. And there is a little bit of the HARMAN acquisition numbers, which is also reflected in the overall sector's performance. And I think communications in general have done -- has been better for Europe and APMEA. That's the color I can give you. Vibhor Singhal: Perfect. That's really helpful. But -- just one last question from my side. You mentioned about the few headwinds in Q4 that you would be facing. And if I look at our guidance, 0% to 2% in the consolidated level, and if we were to, let's say, extrapolate the 2-month incremental impact of HARMAN acquisition, the organic growth will probably fall somewhere between minus 1.5% to plus 0.5%. Is that the right understanding? And is the reason for that very much as you mentioned in your opening remarks as well. Aparna Iyer: Vibhor for some reason, we are not able to hear it clearly. Can you just slow down the question? Vibhor Singhal: Yes, can you hear me? Operator: I'm sorry, his line is disconnected. We'll move on to the next question. [Operator Instructions]. Next question is from the line of Ravi Menon from Macquarie. Ravi Menon: Congrats on a really strong margin performance this quarter. Now that you've come to sequential growth even in a seasonally weak quarter, I surprised that organically, we seem to be hinting at a slight decline possibly at the lower end of our guidance next quarter. And Capco should also be coming out of from the furloughs that it's had this quarter, right? So could you talk a bit about that? And beyond that, do you think that sequential growth is possible looking at the pipeline and the slight improvement possibly if we have on the demand environment? Aparna Iyer: So I will ask Srini to talk through the demand environment. You know we guide based on the visibility that we have at the start of the quarter. I've shared with you that some of the furloughs that typically does come back has been partially offset by the lower working days that we are also seeing this year. And to that extent, we are seeing some softness continue, right? But that said, our endeavor would be to obviously execute the quarter better through this next 90 days, right? Srinivas Pallia: So Ravi, if I look at it, there is no significant change in the demand environment. specifically the discretionary spend as the uncertainty continues. Second, January is the time when many of our customers will finalize their budgeting process. We'll have a much better understanding and view of where they are going to spend. But having said that, if I look at the current pipeline that we have, a significant piece of this pipeline is around cost optimization and vendor consolidation, which are the key levers for our clients. And they are using this as a lever for savings, and they want to reinvest these savings into AI capabilities and also some of the advanced transformational projects that they want to do. For us, we believe this is an opportunity for us to capitalize on this, and we'll make strategic bets in each of these sectors and markets, continue to invest in our clients to do this. From a full year visibility, like Pana said, there is uncertainty in the market and customer continue to remain in wait and watch mode. At this stage, our guidance represents best visibility we have. And if there are any further updates, we will definitely share, Ravi. Ravi Menon: And the -- you talked about vendor consolidation and cost takeout and clients actually using those savings for transformation. Are they actually giving both to the same vendor? Or do they prefer to split that out? What that you're seeing at least in the wins that you have? Srinivas Pallia: So Ravi, it's a mix. There are certain clients who are doing that and continuing with the current partners. And there are certain clients who are changing, and there are certain clients who are increasing the scope and using multiple partners as well. So it clearly varies from client to client. Ravi Menon: And one last question on the HARMAN DTS. Which segments do you think this really improves your possibility of win rates? Srinivas Pallia: So Ravi, if I understand the question, how the HARMAN DTS acquisition will help us, right? Ravi Menon: Correct. Yes. which sectors do you expect the win rates to improve? Srinivas Pallia: So clearly, HARMAN brings in both design to manufacturing capabilities and AI-powered product innovation. In that context, clearly, the sweet spot for a combined unit is, especially the engineering global business line that we have is the tech and com sector. That's, I think, primarily the one where we see a significant opportunity. And the other 3 sectors, I would pick are health, consumer and EMR, Ravi. Operator: We'll take our next question from the line of Sandeep Shah from Equirus Securities. Sandeep Shah: Just the first question is because of delay in ramp-up of deal wins of the last 2, 3 quarters, is it fair to assume if those ramps up in the first quarter next year, then the seasonal softness, which generally comes in the first quarter may not be true next year? Aparna Iyer: So Sandeep, yes, in some sense, that will be the objective that we ramp up enough so that we can offset for some of the weakness that could arise. That said, we don't guide for Q1, but we would like to clarify that it's just delayed and some of those do take time to ramp up and confident that it will ramp up and we will keep you posted. Sandeep Shah: Okay. Just Aparna, I wanted to understand the guidance on the margins, which you said narrow band compared to Q3 margins or earlier range? Aparna Iyer: So you again know we don't guide for margins. You've seen our performance over the last 8 quarters. We've consistently improved, right? I think all credit to the team, we have been fairly resilient on margin, and we will continue our endeavor to keep it. But that said, we will have to invest for growth. And that's the #1 priority, right? We've acquired DTS HARMAN, and that will mean an incremental dilution to our margins that we will have to absorb. So we continue to chase and win large deals and they come with a different margin profile. And these are very important investments we'll have to make. And there will also be decisions that will have to be made on wage increases that Saurabh spoke of. A lot of moving parts. Our endeavor is going to be to make sure that we keep it in that band of 17% to 17.5%. If you recall, we had said that while we stated that band with the acquisition, we will see pressure to that. Right now, we are continuing to hold that band, which itself is a positive. But like I said, we will have to take it quarter-to-quarter. There will be some quarters where we will have to invest in our people, in our deals, in our clients and for growth. So we will make those trade-offs. Sandeep Shah: Yes. Just last couple of questions. The deal TCV in this quarter, both on large deal and total has been slightly softer versus very strong momentum in the earlier 3 quarters. So any reason where is it the client decision-making being slowed down or it's the intense competitive pressure, which has led to some decline in the win ratio? Aparna Iyer: Yes. Typically, like I said, some of these deals, they tend to club, right? We are contesting a lot of large deals. They are in the cycle. We are hopeful of closing them. You will continue to see the momentum on large deal wins. At $1 billion or maybe we are just shy of $100 million. That's been the normal trajectory. Obviously, in the first half, we had a few mega deal wins, 4 to be specific. We hope to win more, right? So I wouldn't read into it in terms of slower decision-making cycle or competitive pressure. I would just say that they tend to lump up. We have a lot of good deals, and we will see the momentum pick up. Sandeep Shah: Okay. And just the last question, Aparna with the war chest of $6.1 billion, though we are distributing dividend, but is it fair to assume that buyback continues to remain one of the options in the mind to give this excess cash back to the shareholders? Aparna Iyer: We have said that buyback will continue to be a means by which we will return cash to our shareholders. It's certainly an option on the table, and we will consider it at an appropriate time. Sandeep Shah: Okay, thanks and all the best. Aparna Iyer: Thank you. Operator: Next question is from the line of Kumar Rakesh from BNP Paribas. Kumar Rakesh: I have just one question. Srini, do you think given the kind of mix which you have, both of vertical and the capability at Wipro, you would be able to get back in line with the industry average revenue growth -- or would it make sense to just slow down your margin, get to mid-teens sort of a margin, be able to better compete with some of your peers, maybe peers as well or maybe acquire some of the companies to reset the mix. What's your thought on that? Srinivas Pallia: Kumar, clearly, first, if you look at our inorganic strategy, it is very clearly aligned to the strategic priorities we called out. We constantly look for sectors and the markets combination in terms of where we need to invest, where we need to acquire new capabilities. And if you look at specifically HARMAN DTS, clearly, it's giving us a combination of both what I would call as capabilities and also a few new markets that they are already in. So we will -- we continue to look at opportunities for us, Kumar, as we continue to move forward. Our strategy is both growing our organic and inorganic and continue to invest in inorganic. And you are right, we do have cash. And as far as that is concerned, it is an opportunity for us to look at the market, scan the market and do the right investment that makes it a win-win for us. Operator: Next question is from the line of Rishi Jhunjhunwala from IIFL. Rishi Jhunjhunwala: Just wanted to understand ex of HARMAN doesn't look like there would be much of a sequential growth in 4Q and 1Q, as we were discussing earlier in the call, historically has had some weak seasonality. I noticed a pretty sharp increase in our overall headcount in this quarter. So just wanted to understand, given the outlook for the next couple of quarters, what is driving this? And how do we read that? Saurabh Govil: The headcount for this quarter is primarily driven from 2 things. One is the acquisition, DTS acquisition. And second is one of the large deals in Phoenix, we had done as reding. I think when we ramped up the deal. So that's been the reason for seeing the ramp-up in this quarter. Otherwise, from a hiring standpoint and supply side, I don't see a challenge. Attrition has been at 2 percentage low for the quarter, trending the same in the next quarter. We are going to go to the campuses again. We had taken a bit of a hiatus in this quarter -- next quarter. So from a supply side, utilization is looking up net of the furloughs, which we -- net of the leaves which people have taken. So we are fairly confident in the headcount supply side to manage the demand. Rishi Jhunjhunwala: Understood, sir. The second question is just wanted to understand this restructuring cost that we have booked in our financials. Is it in the same nature as what we did in 1Q? And if not, if you can give some color around that? Saurabh Govil: The restructuring basically has pivoted on obsolete skill and primarily in 2 areas. One is in Europe, where we have a tough labor laws and second is in Capco. These are the 2 big areas that we did that, similar to what we have done in Q1. Rishi Jhunjhunwala: Understood. And just last thing, there was a bookkeeping question. There is a spike in D&A in this quarter. Any particular reason? And is that a normalized level going forward as well? Aparna Iyer: We have taken a provision for bad debt charge. And I think that's the line item that will show an increase. That's in the usual course of business. You should see that go off starting next quarter. Rishi Jhunjhunwala: Aparna, I was asking about depreciation and amortization? Aparna Iyer: Okay. And typically, we do assess the intangibles every year. And if -- based on the expected forecast, et cetera, sometimes we tend to accelerate such amortization. In this quarter, we did accelerate some amortization towards one of the earlier acquisitions, and that's reflected. And that should also normalize. However, we will have an increased amortization charge coming in for the DTS HARMAN. So yes, you should wait for the next quarter to get some more normalized then... Operator: Next question is from the line of Kawaljeet Saluja from Kotak Securities. Kawaljeet Saluja: I had just a couple of questions for you. First is that at $6.5 billion, it seems that you have plenty of excess cash. So how do you intend to flush this excess cash out? Would it be through dividends or is buyback on the cards? And if buyback is on the cards, then what are the considerations set required to move towards that path? That's the first question. Aparna Iyer: Okay. You're right. We did note that we've been having excess cash. And as a result of that, last year, we had increased our capital allocation. And we've said that we would start increasing our dividend payout. We did that. We paid out INR 6 in the last financial year. This year, we've almost paid INR 11 per share, which is about $1.3 billion. We should opt -- nearly account for like -- if I had to just annualized our YTD EPS is about 88%, 89% of that. So at least what the increased dividend is doing is we're not adding to the excess cash and leaving enough for watches for whatever acquisitions and organic investments we need to make. Is buyback an option to still consider in terms of returning excess cash to shareholders? Indeed, it is. And what are the considerations for that, we will have a discussion with the board on that, and we will come back considerations include whether we have enough net cash available in order to pursue the investments we need, and we will keep the market posted, Kawal. But other statutory considerations are quite in the place for buyback. Kawaljeet Saluja: Can you repeat that last part again? I missed it. Aparna Iyer: I said there are some statutory considerations that you can't do a buyback within 12 months. You can't do it if there is a merger pending for NCLT, et cetera. None of that is -- I mean, all of that is conducive, Kawal, for us.. Kawaljeet Saluja: So let's say, if you had to theoretically decide to do a buyback, today, you can do that. Whereas in the past, there was an NCLT process or merger, which would have acted as an impediment -- there is no such impediment. I mean you can do that as and when you feel it's the right time. Is that the way to look at it? Aparna Iyer: Yes. Absolutely. Kawaljeet Saluja: Noted. The second question is for you and Srini. Let's say, if those 2 mega deal ramp-ups were not delayed, then what would the guidance have been for, let's say, the March quarter? Any way to detail it out either quantitatively, which may be difficult or even qualitatively, that will be very helpful to understand the growth trajectory. Aparna Iyer: Obviously, we can't talk about it quantitatively, Kawal. And qualitatively, like I said, it's only delayed. these ramp-ups should happen. And each deal is different in its nature, right? For example, something like Phoenix, which was entirely net new and fully where there was a clear go-live date and readiness, we've been able to do that, and that's fully into our revenue starting Q3. So that played out perfectly to plan, right? Now in some of the other larger deals that -- or mega deals that we could be winning in terms of vendor consolidation, these deals typically have both an element of renewal and new. Obviously, the renewal is fully in and that continues, and we're not seeing any changes in terms of the expectations. In case of the new, the element of new, some of these things are taking longer, either due to client situations where there could be some changes in the client environment that they're going through and therefore, there is a little bit of a delay in terms of the timing of the ramp-up or it could just be the nature of how it is going to play out, right? Because we will have -- it will take 6 quarters. That's what I earlier alluded to. So it is going to take that time. And we are hopeful that this will flow through in the coming quarters. Kawaljeet Saluja: Noted. Thank you so much. All the best. Aparna Iyer: Thank you. Thank you Kawal. Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference back to Mr. Abhishek Jain for closing comments. Over to you, sir. Abhishek Jain: Yes. Thank you all for joining the call. Have a nice day. Thank you. Operator: Thank you. Thank you, members of the management team. On behalf of Wipro Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.

Operator: Hello, and welcome, everyone, to the Insteel Industries First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. My name is Breeka, and I will be your operator today. All lines will be muted throughout the presentation portion of the call with a chance for Q&A at the end. I will now hand over to your host, H.O. Woltz III, CEO, to begin. Please go ahead. H.O. Woltz III: Good morning. Thank you for your interest in Insteel Industries, Inc. Welcome to our first quarter 2026 conference call, which will be conducted by Scot R. Jafroodi, our Vice President, CFO, and Treasurer, and me. Before we begin, let me remind you that some of the comments made in our presentation are considered to be forward-looking statements that are subject to various risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These risk factors are described in our periodic filings with the SEC. The upturn in business activity we reported previously continued during our first quarter, and our fiscal 2025 acquisitions continue to perform well. While our ability to forecast future activity is limited, we are encouraged by the level of optimism in our markets as well as brisk order entry up to this point in January, which causes us to believe that 2026 will be a strong year for the company. While the relative strength of our markets is real, we are aware of uncertainties created by the administration's trade policies, the nation's fiscal conditions, and by the economic cycle. I am going to turn the call over to Scot R. Jafroodi to comment on our financial results. Following Scot's comments, I will pick the call back up to discuss our business outlook. Scot R. Jafroodi: Thank you, H.O. Woltz III, and good morning to everyone joining us today. As highlighted in this morning's press release, we delivered a strong start to the year. First quarter results benefited from improved demand for our concrete reinforcing products, which supported wider spreads between selling prices and raw material costs. Net earnings for the quarter rose to $7.276 million or 39¢ per share compared with $1.1 million or 6¢ per share in the same period last year. It is also worth noting that last year's first quarter results included $1 million of restructuring charges and acquisition-related costs, which collectively reduced earnings per share by 4¢. First quarter shipments, which are typically our softest period due to winter weather conditions and holiday schedules, increased 3.8% year-over-year. On a sequential basis, shipments declined 9.7% from the fourth quarter, which is consistent with normal seasonal patterns. The year-over-year growth in shipments reflects improved demand across our commercial and infrastructure markets along with incremental volume from the acquisitions we completed early last year. As we move forward, our year-over-year volume comparisons will normalize now that these acquisitions are fully integrated into our run rate. Turning to pricing, average selling prices increased 18.8% year-over-year, reflecting the pricing actions we took throughout fiscal 2025 to offset higher steel wire rod costs driven by tight domestic supply conditions and increased Section 232 steel tariffs, as well as to address rising raw operating costs. Sequentially, average selling prices were essentially unchanged from the fourth quarter as we did not take additional pricing actions during the current period. However, with scrap and wire rod prices now moving higher again, we implemented our old price increases across most product lines, which took effect earlier this month. Gross profit for the quarter improved to $18.1 million from $9.5 million a year ago, with gross margin expanding 400 basis points to 11.3% from 7.3%. This improvement was driven by widening spreads, higher shipment volumes, and lower unit manufacturing costs. On a sequential basis, gross profit declined by $10.5 million from the fourth quarter, and gross margin narrowed by 480 basis points, driven primarily by the consumption of higher-cost inventory. As I just mentioned, the price increases implemented in January are expected to benefit second-quarter spreads and margins as higher selling prices begin to align with the consumption of lower-cost inventories under the first-in, first-out accounting methodology. SG&A expenses for the quarter rose by approximately $900,000 to $8.8 million or 5.5% of net sales compared with $7.9 million or 6.1% of net sales in the prior year. The year-over-year increase was driven primarily by an $800,000 rise in compensation expense under our return on capital-based incentive plan, reflecting stronger financial performance in the current year. As you may recall, we did not incur any incentive compensation expense in the first quarter of last year. Our effective tax rate decreased to 21% compared to 26.1% in the prior year period. The decline was primarily driven by a reduction in the valuation allowance on deferred tax assets along with a discrete tax item related to the calculation of state deferred taxes. Looking ahead, we expect our effective tax rate for the remainder of the year to be approximately 23%, subject to the level of pretax earnings, post-tax book-to-tax differences, and the other assumptions and estimates underlying our tax provision calculation. Moving to the cash flow statement and the balance sheet, cash flow from operations used $700,000 in the quarter, compared to providing $19 million last year. Net working capital used $16.6 million of cash in the first quarter, driven primarily by a $34.5 million increase in inventories, partially offset by a $14.1 million reduction in accounts receivable. The inventory increase reflects higher raw material purchases, including a meaningful amount of offshore material, along with an increase in the average carrying value of inventory. On the receivable side, the decline was largely tied to lower shipments, which is consistent with the normal seasonal slowdown in sales we see this time of year. Reported on the inventory position represented approximately 3.9 months of shipments on a forward-looking basis, calculated off of our forecasted second-quarter volumes, compared with 3.5 months at the end of the fourth quarter. As we discussed on our prior call, we expected a temporary inventory build in the first quarter as we supplemented domestic wire rod supply with offshore purchases. Looking ahead, we expect inventory levels to moderate over the course of the second quarter as purchasing activity normalizes and shipment volumes increase. It is also worth noting that our first-quarter inventories are carried at an average unit cost that is generally in line with our first-quarter cost of sales and remain below current replacement levels. We incurred $1.5 million of capital expenditures in the first quarter and remain committed to a full-year target of $20 million. H.O. Woltz III will provide more detail on this topic in his remarks. In December, we returned $19.4 million of capital to our shareholders through the payment of a $1 per share special cash dividend in addition to our regular quarterly dividend. This marks the ninth time in the last ten years that we have issued a special dividend. Also, during the first quarter, we continued our share buyback, repurchasing $745,000 of common equity equal to approximately 24,000 shares. From a liquidity perspective, we ended the quarter with $15.6 million in cash on hand and no borrowings outstanding on our $100 million revolving credit facility. Turning to the macro indicators for our construction end markets, the latest readings from two key leading measures, the Architectural Billing Index (ABI) and Dodge Momentum Index (DMI), continue to signal a mixed and somewhat cautious outlook for nonresidential commercial construction activity. In November, the ABI registered 45.3, remaining firmly in negative territory as any reading below 50 can indicate a contraction in activity. This marks the thirteenth consecutive month of declining billings. Inquiries for new projects showed only modest improvement, and the value of newly signed design contracts continued to soften. In contrast, the Dodge Momentum Index signaled strengthening activity, rising 7% in December and supported by more than 3.5% growth in commercial planning, driven in large part by data center construction. Year-over-year, the DMI was up over 50% overall, including a 45% increase in the commercial segment. Turning to the broader market backdrop, the most recent construction spending data from the US Department of Commerce shows that through August, total construction spending on a seasonally adjusted basis was down about 1.6% year-over-year. Nonresidential spending declined 1.5%, and public highway and street construction, one of our key end markets, was down about 1% compared to the same period last year. Finally, US cement shipments, another key measure that we monitor, fell 4.3% in August and were down 3.4% year-to-date. That said, as we close out 2026, we are encouraged by the steady demand we are seeing across our core markets. While we recognize the broader economic backdrop remains uncertain, the demand trends we are seeing and the conversations we are having with customers give us confidence as we look ahead to the balance of the year. This concludes my prepared remarks. I will now turn the call back over to H.O. Woltz III. H.O. Woltz III: As I noted in my opening comments, we are pleased with the acceleration of business activity that continued through our first quarter. Our first quarter performance will never be strong due to the limited number of working days in the quarter after giving effect to Thanksgiving and Christmas shutdowns through much of the industry and to seasonal weather patterns. So our first quarter results are never indicative of the level of demand for our products. Nevertheless, we are pleased with the performance for the quarter and see no indication that the level of activity in our markets is poised to subside. As we consider the drivers of demand for our products, the facts are no clearer to us today than they have been in the past. We believe, however, that funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) is responsible for much of the uptick in demand we have experienced, although we cannot definitively state that any single project was funded by IIJA. I suspect the same is true for our customers. They have enjoyed better volume levels without knowing the precise source of funding that drives demand for their products. While IIJA funding expires in 2026, funded projects will proceed into 2027 and beyond. The consensus today is that there is bipartisan support for a replacement infrastructure funding mechanism. Of course, that remains to be seen. The other notable source of demand that we expect to remain robust into 2027 is from the data center construction boom that has been well publicized. While community pushback seems to be growing as the scale of data center resource intensity is more fully appreciated, we have commitments from customers for projects that have been approved and funded and that should run through calendar 2026. The timing of the data center activity is fortuitous since other sectors of the private nonresidential construction market are weak. We believe the data center work will serve as a timely bridge while we wait for the recovery of more traditional private nonresidential projects. Turning to another subject, the steel industry may have been more affected by the administration's tariff policy than any other industry. The Section 232 tariff of 50% on imports of steel has caused market prices in the US for hot rolled wire rod, our primary raw material, to rise to a level that is 50% to 100% higher than the global market price. While we are fortunate that imports of PC strand are now subject to the Section 232 tariff under the derivative products provision, domestic wire rod prices have risen to an extent that dilutes the benefit of the Section 232 tariff on PC strand. Probably of more importance is the uncertainty that continues to surround the administration's tariff policy. Recently, I read that the Secretary of Commerce had speculated that the Section 232 tariff might be modified or removed with respect to the Europeans if the right trade deal were struck between the US and European Union. It is reasonable to assume that this could be true with respect to other countries as well. Notably, negotiations surrounding USMCA come to mind. Such speculation by the administration increases uncertainty and instability in US markets. It is important for investors to understand that Insteel Industries, Inc. operates in a small segment of the domestic hot rolled carbon steel market. Domestic production of wire rod, our primary raw material, is approximately 3.5 million tons per year, while US production of all hot rolled carbon steel is roughly 100 million tons per year. Difficult economic conditions in recent years for producers of wire rod resulted in the permanent closure of two producing mills and financial struggles together with significantly diminished output for a third producer. Altogether, these curtailments reduced actual domestic production of wire rod by more than 800,000 tons per year and reduced domestic capacity to produce wire rod by nearly 1.2 million tons per year relative to apparent domestic consumption of approximately 5 million tons per year. So by our calculation, capacity equal to nearly 25% of apparent domestic consumption is offline, most of it permanently. These capacity curtailments together with the imposition of the Section 232 tariff caused the US wire rod market to tighten significantly and created serious questions about the adequacy of domestic supply. Insteel Industries, Inc. therefore turned to the offshore market for a portion of its supply. The economics of offshore transactions, which include substantial freight costs, require the purchase of large quantities with a resulting impact on inventories and networking capital requirements as reflected on our balance sheet. Net working capital has risen over $50 million in the last twelve months. We expect to continue importing a portion of our raw material requirement until such time as domestic availability improves. We believe, however, that the net working capital impact of importing will be more muted going forward and that we will see significant working capital release as market conditions normalize. But it is not possible to quantify this at the present time. Finally, turning to CapEx, as mentioned in the release and by Scot R. Jafroodi, we expect to invest approximately $20 million in our plants and information systems infrastructure here in 2026. We expect our investments to support the growth of our engineered structural mesh business, to reduce our cash production costs, and to enhance the robust nature of our information system. Consistent with past practice, we will provide quarterly updates of our investment activities and expectations as the year progresses. We believe our estimate is conservative in keeping with prior forecasts for CapEx levels. Looking ahead, we are aware of substantial risks related to the state of the economy and the administration's tariff policies. Regardless of developments in these areas, we are well-positioned to pursue growth-related activities, both organic and through acquisitions, to optimize our costs. This concludes our prepared remarks, and we will now take your questions. Breeka, would you please explain the procedure for asking questions? Operator: Of course. If you wish to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. Please press star followed by two. And when preparing to ask your question, ensure your device is unmuted locally. We have our first question from Julio Alberto Romero from Sidoti and Company. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Julio Alberto Romero: Thanks. Hey, good morning, H.O. Woltz III and Scot R. Jafroodi. To begin, you sounded pretty constructive on the overall demand outlook, particularly with the data center and IIJA-related projects. You mentioned the commitments you have from customers on the data center side that have been approved and funded and run through calendar 2026. Can you give us a little bit more color on these commitments? Are these new commitments in your pipeline? Have they been accelerating? And what is your sense of how far out these commitments are beyond calendar 2026? H.O. Woltz III: Well, I mean, the data center business is new to Insteel Industries, Inc. It is new to much of the economy. I think 2025 was the first year we had done any significant data center business, but certainly, now that we are in that market and connected with some of the companies that regularly do that business, we are seeing repeat opportunities and robust demand, which comes as no surprise based on what has been publicized about that industry and that build-out. Julio Alberto Romero: Got it. That is helpful. And, talking about the volumes in the quarter, you experienced growth of roughly 4%. Can you talk about how that was affected, if at all, by constraints of wire rod? Both in this quarter and on a go-forward basis? H.O. Woltz III: Do you mean just the domestic situation? Julio Alberto Romero: Yeah. I think the last couple of quarters you called out that raw material constraints have kind of constrained your volume output. But it sounds like that was less of an effect this quarter. H.O. Woltz III: So the reason that I went through the mill closures and sort of the macro with respect to wire rod supply and demand is to give readers of our release and participants on this call a sense for why our inventories have grown. Our inventories have grown because we are unable to acquire sufficient quantities of wire rod domestically, and we are forced to go offshore. I will point out that the situation in the wire rod market is very different than the situation that confronts purchasers of other hot rolled steel products because wire rod capacity has contracted significantly, and capacity has expanded significantly in other hot rolled products. So when we concluded that it was unlikely we could support our business objectives by buying solely domestically, we went to the offshore market to fill the gaps. We will continue doing so until such time as we see that availability improves in the US and that suppliers are willing to work for an order. Julio Alberto Romero: Very helpful context there. Last one, if I may, and I will pass it on, is on the SG&A front. You were able to grow sales 23% while SG&A grew by 11%. My question is, are you beginning to realize SG&A leverage from your acquisitions of EWP and OWP at this point in time? Or is that leverage still coming in your view? H.O. Woltz III: Well, I mean, we certainly realize the synergies we expected to come from the acquisition. I would say that together with the added shipments and sales volume is really what that acquisition was all about. We are pleased with its performance, and we are moving along well. Julio Alberto Romero: Excellent. I will pass it on. Thanks very much. Scot R. Jafroodi: Thank you. Operator: Our next question is from Tyson Lee Bauer from KC Capital. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Tyson Lee Bauer: Good morning, gentlemen. Insteel Industries, Inc. has consistently been able to run counter to the industry stats as far as your ability to grow shipments and your ability to grow as a company. Versus, I think you mentioned, thirteen straight months of ABI billings below 50 and some of the other general industry stats. What has allowed you to run counter to those? Are we seeing an underlying acceleration away from just standard rebar to more of your ESM products and other products that would account for your ability to grow facing those kinds of industry headwinds? H.O. Woltz III: Well, if I remember correctly, Tyson, the first time that business conditions for Insteel Industries, Inc. seemed to diverge significantly from what the major macro indices would indicate was 2025. Several things have happened internally that have helped us with that. Our work in the cash-in-place market has helped. Our acquisitions have helped. I think there are things going on internally that are different than what you may see in macro indicators for construction activity in the US market. We will continue pursuing the paths that we are pursuing now. Tyson Lee Bauer: In the past, you benefited from when we were going into 2021 with the distribution centers. Now we are looking at data centers, both DC, ironically. You are working with those contractors that specialize there. Are you being spec'd into those designs as you were with some of the online retail customers before in the DCs? As we see that develop and that industry grow, are you kind of in lockstep with that? H.O. Woltz III: Yeah. I think every project is different. But as a general goal, I would say no. We are not spec'd in. Rebar is spec'd in. We make a conversion of rebar applications to engineered structural mesh applications and rely on the value proposition of our product. Particularly with respect to data centers, one of the significant value propositions that we offer is speed. These owners and lessors of these centers are really focused on constructing them and getting them up and operating quickly. Our product helps with that whole charge. Tyson Lee Bauer: So you do have an inherent advantage based on what your product is to grow along with that growing segment, that niche. H.O. Woltz III: Yeah. I think the value proposition of our product relative to rebar is solid. There is no question about that. Tyson Lee Bauer: Okay. Inventory levels, it sounds like that may have peaked this past quarter. Will we see a gradual downtick? Will that downtick accelerate as we get into fiscal three and fiscal four? H.O. Woltz III: Well, I think it depends on the level of shipments that we see. If the scenario that we believe will unfold actually unfolds, and that is one of strong business conditions in 2026, then I think that is correct. But keep in mind that we will go back to the offshore market for Q3 and Q4 if we do not see significant improvements in the balance of supply and demand domestically. Tyson Lee Bauer: Okay. The CapEx of $20 million, is that roughly split fifty-fifty maintenance, $10 million, $10 million for whether it be cost reductions or product line expansions, more of the growth side or improvement in margin? Is that kind of the split you are looking at? H.O. Woltz III: I would say that is close to correct. We are still identifying some of the capacity expansion opportunities that exist out there. Of course, we are always interested in incorporating new technology into our manufacturing operations that will help us reduce cash costs of operation. We still have the underlying labor availability issue. As you might suspect, the more new technology we bring into the plants, the less labor-intensive our operation is. We are very much oriented toward looking at that. Tyson Lee Bauer: Okay. And last one for me. As the administration goes to Davos, it is supposed to lay a plan to increase and incentivize greater activity in the residential side, which is about 15% of your overall business. Betting against the administration has proved futile. So you kind of go with what they are pushing, especially in an election year. How quickly can that residential market for you turn where it becomes a benefit as opposed to just kind of being stuck in the mud the last couple of years? H.O. Woltz III: My view would be probably not fast enough to have any meaningful impact on 2026 for Insteel Industries, Inc. More importantly, our participation in residential markets would be related to slab-on-grade construction of housing units where the slabs are post-tensioned, and we are using PC strand. That is the segment of business where we knock heads with the imports most closely. Tyson Lee Bauer: Okay. I am going to sneak one in. The labor cost outlook, we have heard other companies talk about general wage increases, health costs on that side of it. Have you indexed or looked at labor costs in increases for this year and what kind of offsets you have there? H.O. Woltz III: Yeah. We have 11 or 12 different considerations because we look at prevailing labor markets in each of the areas where we operate. They are each different. But the upward pressure on labor costs still exists. We are incurring significant reciprocal and Section 232 tariff expenses in purchases of non-raw material items like spare parts, seeing energy increase. The inflationary environment is alive and well within our operations, and it really, like I say, every one's an independent event. Tyson Lee Bauer: Okay. Thank you, gentlemen. Operator: Thank you. We currently have no further questions, so I will hand back over to the management team for closing remarks. H.O. Woltz III: Okay. We appreciate your interest in Insteel Industries, Inc. and its operating results, and we look forward to talking to you next quarter. In the meantime, if you have questions, do not hesitate to follow up with us. Thank you. Operator: This concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.

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GS 2025 Q4 财报电话会议

Katie: Good morning. My name is Katie, and I will be your conference facilitator today. I would like to welcome everyone to the Goldman Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. On behalf of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., I will begin the call with the following disclaimer. The earnings presentation can be found on the Investor Relations page of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. website and contains information on forward-looking statements and non-GAAP measures. This audiocast is copyrighted material of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. and may not be duplicated, reproduced, or rebroadcast without consent. This call is being recorded today, 01/15/2026. I will now turn the call over to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, David Solomon, and Chief Financial Officer, Dennis Coleman. Thank you. Mr. Solomon, you may begin your conference. David Solomon: Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. Thank you all for joining us. I am very pleased with our strong performance in the fourth quarter. We generated earnings per share of $14.1, an ROE of 16%, and an RoTE of 17.1%. For the full year, we delivered earnings per share of $51.32, a 27% increase versus last year, and ROE of 15% and ROTE of 16%. Before we review our financials in detail, I want to discuss our longer-term performance and provide an update to you on our strategy. Beginning on Page one, in 2020, we held the firm's first investor day and laid out a clear and comprehensive strategy to grow and strengthen the firm. We also set a number of targets so we would be held accountable for our progress. Since then, guided by our purpose to be the most exceptional financial institution in the world, supported by our four values of client service, integrity, partnership, and excellence, we continue to successfully execute on this strategy. We increased firm-wide revenues by roughly 60%. We grew EPS by 144%. We improved our returns by 500 basis points. And we delivered a total shareholder return of over 340%, the most of our peer group over this time frame. As you can see on page two, we achieved this while also materially improving the risk profile of the firm and enhancing the resilience of our earnings. We have doubled our more durable revenues. We have reduced historical principal investments by over 90% from roughly $64 billion down to $6 billion. The results of these multiyear efforts to scale capital-light businesses and reduce our capital intensity were reflected in our most recent CCAR stress test, where we've driven a 320 basis point improvement in our stress capital buffer. Overall, we have strengthened and grown the firm through relentless focus on delivering excellence to our clients. Turning to page three, I want to highlight our strong execution in 2025. Our success is fueled by our world-class interconnected franchises that deliver one Goldman Sachs to our clients around the globe. In global banking and markets, we maintained our position as the number one M&A adviser in investment banking and number one equities franchise alongside our leading position in FICC. We improved our standing with the top 150 clients in these businesses, which has contributed to 350 basis points of wallet share gain in GBM since 2019. We significantly increased our more durable FICC and equity financing revenues, which grew to a new record of $11.4 billion for the year and generated returns in excess of 16% in the segment. In asset wealth management, we are a top-five active asset manager, a leading alternatives franchise, and a premier ultra-high-net-worth wealth manager. We've consistently grown more durable management, other fees, and private banking and lending revenues, which were both records in 2025. And also raised a record $115 billion in alternatives. Our strong execution has led to improvement in both the margins and the returns in this segment. Importantly, we're taking the final steps needed to narrow our strategic focus. In addition to completing the transition of the General Motors credit card program last August, last week, we announced an agreement to transition the Apple Card portfolio. Let's turn to Page four for a deeper dive on our franchises, starting with investment banking, where we have been the number one M&A adviser for twenty-three consecutive years. Very few, if any, service businesses of our size can claim long-standing leadership to this degree. This is a reflection of the strength of our client relationships as well as the quality of our people and the advice and execution capabilities they bring to our clients. Since 2020, we've generated an incremental $5 billion in advisory revenues versus the number two competitor. And in 2025 alone, we've advised on more than $1.6 trillion of announced M&A transaction volumes, over $250 billion ahead of the next closest peer. Over the last year, we've seen high levels of client engagement across our investment banking franchise. And we expect activity to accelerate in 2026. Our outlook is supported by a number of catalysts: corporate focus on strategically positioning scale and innovation, the tremendous public and private capital fueling growth in AI, as well as a strong pickup in sponsor activity. Given our best-in-class sponsor franchise, we're especially well-positioned to help sponsors deploy the $1 trillion of dry powder they hold and monetize the roughly $4 trillion of value across their portfolio companies. Increased levels of engagement are reflected in our backlog, which stands at its highest level in four years. M&A transactions often kick off a flywheel of activity across our entire franchise. Whether it's acquisition financing, hedging activity, secondary market making, or investing opportunities for our AWM clients, it is unquestionable that there is a significant multiplier effect. And as the number one advisor for over two decades, we are uniquely positioned to capture the significant forward opportunity. Moving to Page five, another growth engine for GBM has been our leading origination and financing businesses. Last year, we announced the creation of the Capital Solutions Group, formalizing a hub to provide our clients a comprehensive suite of financing origination, structuring, and risk management offerings across both public and private markets. On the public side, we are optimistic about the outlook for equity and debt underwriting, particularly amid the resurgence in the IPO market and higher acquisition finance-related activity. We have a long-standing track record and leading market positions. On the private side, our ability to structure holistic solutions has led to a number of asset-backed financings across infrastructure, transportation, and data centers. Supported by strong origination and structuring that feed opportunities across our client franchise and our asset management platform. These capabilities have supported our deliberate strategy to grow our more durable financing revenues, providing a ballast to our results and comprising 37% of total FICC and equity revenues in 2025. Since 2021, these have increased at a 17% CAGR. And with risk management always top of mind, we still expect to prudently drive growth from here. On page six, we illustrate the strength and resilience of the FICC and equities intermediation businesses. We have a demonstrated ability to deliver strong results in a broad array of market environments. While client activity levels in different asset classes ebb and flow in any given quarter, our overall results have been remarkably consistent over time. This reflects the breadth and diversification of these businesses, which have been bolstered by our share gains. We see even more opportunities to further strengthen our client franchise. This includes investing to improve our market-making capabilities and broaden offerings for active and passive ETF issuers. In addition, we are working to close share gaps with key client segments, including insurers, wealth managers, and RIAs, as well as in certain product areas like corporate derivatives. Geographically, we are looking to close the share gap in Asia, in part by focusing on these areas. Turning to page seven, our scaled asset and wealth management business has $3.6 trillion in assets under supervision, with global breadth and depth across products and solutions. We've grown more durable revenues across management and other fees in private banking and lending at a 12% CAGR, ahead of our target, and we continue to see significant opportunities across wealth management, alternatives, and solutions. We have also improved our AWM margins and returns. And given our growth outlook across these businesses, we are setting new targets. We are increasing our pretax margin target to 30%, which will help drive high-teen returns in AWM over the medium term. Let's dive deeper into our key growth opportunities, starting with wealth management on page eight. Over the last fifty years, we have built a premier franchise with $1.9 trillion in client assets that is centered around meeting the distinct investing, planning, and borrowing needs of ultra-high-net-worth individuals, family offices, endowments, and foundations. Over the last five years, we drove long-term fee-based inflows at an annual pace of 6% and grew wealth management revenues at a CAGR of 11%. And we expect further growth from here. Specifically, we are broadening our client base by increasing the number of advisers and content specialists globally. We're expanding our loan product offerings in line with client demand. We are enhancing alternatives investment offerings to facilitate clients moving closer to their optimal target allocation. And we are continuing to elevate the overall client experience, including via enhanced digital offerings and more expansive thought leadership engagements that leverage the convening power of Goldman Sachs. To sharpen our focus on future growth in wealth management, we are introducing a new target of 5% long-term fee-based net inflows annually from the platform. On Page nine, we highlight our other key growth opportunities in asset wealth management, alternatives, and solutions. We have a leading alternatives platform where we've raised $438 billion since our 2020 investor day. And we have grown alternatives management and other fees to a record $2.4 billion. We continue to scale our flagship fund programs while concurrently developing new strategies. Given our success in strengthening and growing our alternative platforms, we believe we can raise between $75 billion and $100 billion annually on a sustainable basis. As these funds continue to be deployed, we expect double-digit growth in alternative management and other fees. We expect fee-paying alternative assets under supervision to reach $750 billion by 2030. This further supports our existing target of generating $1 billion in incentive fees annually. We're also pleased with the progress across our solutions business, where we see secular growth in demand for our products and services. We are the number one outsourced CIO manager in the US, providing clients a one-stop shop for their investment needs: advice, portfolio construction, risk management, and hedging. And we've won significant global mandates this year from firms, including Eli Lilly and Shell. We are also the number one separately managed account and the second-largest insurance solutions provider. Looking forward, we see continued opportunities for growth, including in third-party wealth, in the context of alternatives offering, ETFs, and customized solutions like direct indexing. In addition, we are expanding our capabilities in the retirement channel via partnerships, further deepening our strong relationships with insurers, and enhancing our offerings for institutional clients, including sovereign wealth funds. Turning to page 10, building on our strong organic growth, we are accelerating our growth trajectory in asset wealth management through our recent strategic partnerships and acquisitions. Our collaboration with T. Rowe Price delivers a range of public and private market solutions for retirement and wealth investors. Last month, we announced the launch of co-branded model portfolios, the first of four planned product offerings. We recently closed the acquisition of Industry Ventures, a venture capital platform that adds an attractive technology investment capability to our market-leading secondaries investing franchise, XIG, where we now have over $500 billion in assets under supervision. Most recently, we announced the acquisition of Innovator, which significantly scales our businesses to be in the top 10 of active ETF providers globally, particularly in the fast-growing outcome-based ETF segment. While the bar for transformational M&A remains very high, we will continue to look for ways to accelerate growth in asset wealth management. Turning to Page 11, we have a long history of prudent and dynamic capital management, and our philosophy remains unchanged. We prioritize investing across our client franchises at attractive returns, sustainably growing our dividend, and returning excess capital to shareholders in the form of buybacks. We see meaningful opportunities to deploy capital across our franchise. This includes leaning into acquisition financing as M&A activity accelerates, supporting growth in equities and fixed financing, and increasing lending to our ultra-high-net-worth clients. That said, given our strong earnings generation capability and excess capital positions, we also have the capacity to return more capital to shareholders. Today, we are announcing a $0.50 increase in our quarterly dividend to $4.5, representing a 50% increase from a year ago. In addition, we have $32 billion of remaining buyback capacity under our current share repurchase authorization. And while we are mindful of our current stock price, we will remain dynamic in executing repurchases. Turning to Page 12, as we continue to grow the firm and strategically deploy our balance sheet to support client activity, our unwavering focus remains on maintaining a disciplined risk management framework and robust standards. We've been on a multiyear journey to diversify our funding footprint, including building strategic deposit-raising channels such as private banking, markets, and transaction banking. This has significantly improved our funding structure. Our deposits have grown to $501 billion and now represent roughly 40% of our total funding. We continue to optimize activity in our bank, which held 35% of firm-wide assets at year-end, versus 25% at the time of our first Investor Day. Overall, this progress underscores our commitment to the diversification and resiliency of our funding profile, which has improved our funding costs and our financial flexibility. All in, our robust capital position, diversified funding mix, dynamic liquidity management, and strong risk discipline are foundational to the strength and stability of our balance sheet, allowing us to meet the evolving demands of our clients. Moving to Page 13, last quarter, we announced the launch of One Goldman Sachs 3.0, our new operating model propelled by Ella AI. We are excited to embark on this effort, starting with six work streams we identified as ripe for disruption. Our people have begun thorough assessments of opportunities for efficiency, and we will then invest to reengineer these processes from the ground up. We will be measuring and driving accountability, and we will update you over the coming year with additional details regarding these metrics. Let's turn to page 14. The exceptional service we provide our clients is a direct result of our people, who are our most important asset. Our client franchise is powered by our best-in-class talent and culture. And it is critical that we continue to invest in Goldman Sachs as an aspirational brand around the globe, which allows us to attract quality talent at all levels. As an example, in 2025, we had over 1.1 million experienced hire applications, a 33% increase from last year. And in our summer internship program, we maintained a selection rate of less than 1%. Many of these individuals will have long careers at the firm, exemplified by the fact that roughly 45% of our partners started as campus hires. And while some leave for opportunities elsewhere, these firms often become important clients to Goldman Sachs. Today, more than 650 of our alumni are in C-suite roles at companies with either a market cap greater than $1 billion or assets under management greater than $5 billion. On page 15, we outline our firm-wide through-the-cycle targets. Given the successful execution against our strategic priorities, we are confident that we will continue to deliver on these. And in the near term, we believe that our catalysts position us to exceed our return target. We have the number one M&A advisor within our leading global banking and markets franchise that is poised to capitalize on a cyclical upswing in investment banking activity. A scaled asset wealth management business with higher margin and return targets and clear opportunities for future growth. And tailwinds from a more balanced regulatory regime. In closing, I am incredibly proud of what we have delivered, and I am confident that we will continue to serve our clients with excellence and drive strong returns for our shareholders. Let me now turn it over to Dennis to cover our financial results in more detail. Dennis Coleman: Thank you, David. And good morning. Let's start with our results on page 16 of the presentation. In the fourth quarter, we generated revenues of $13.5 billion, earnings per share of $14.01, an ROE of 16%, and an RoTE of 17.1%. For the full year, we delivered earnings per share of $51.32, a 27% increase versus last year. An ROE of 15% and an RoTE of 16%, improving 230 and 250 basis points, respectively, compared to 2024. As David mentioned, we announced an agreement to transition the Apple Card portfolio. For the quarter, the transition had a net positive impact of $0.46 to EPS and 50 basis points to ROE, as a $2.3 billion revenue reduction was more than offset by a $2.5 billion reserve release upon moving the portfolio to held for sale. Given that we are taking our final steps to narrow our strategic focus, you will have seen we implemented minor organizational changes and made corresponding updates to our segments, which are incorporated in our earnings presentation today. Turning to results by segment, starting on Page 18, Global Banking and Markets produced record revenues of $41.5 billion for the year, up 18% amid broad-based strength versus last year. In the fourth quarter, investment banking fees of $2.6 billion rose 25% year over year, driven by increases in each of advisory, debt underwriting, and equity. For 2025, we maintained our number one in the league tables for announced and completed M&A, and also ranked first in leveraged lending. We ranked third in equity underwriting and second in common stock offerings, convertibles, and high-yield offerings. Even with very strong accruals in the fourth quarter, our investment banking backlog rose for a seventh consecutive quarter to a four-year high, primarily driven by advisory. As David mentioned, we are optimistic about the investment banking outlook for 2026 and the multiplier effect this activity has across our franchise. FICC net revenues were $3.1 billion for the quarter, up 12% year over year. In intermediation, the 15% year-over-year increase was driven by rates and commodities, and in financing, revenues rose 7% to a new record on better results within mortgages and structured lending. Equities net revenues were $4.3 billion in the quarter. Equities intermediation revenues were $2.2 billion, up 11% year over year on better performance in derivatives. Equities financing results hit a quarterly record of $2.1 billion, up 42% versus the prior year amid record average balances in prime. For the full year, total equities net revenues were a record $16.5 billion, surpassing last year's record by over $3 billion, helped by the multiyear investments we've made in this business. Moving to asset wealth management on page 20, for 2025, revenues were $16.7 billion, and our pretax margin was 25%. Segment ROE for the year was 12.5%, and in the mid-teens when adjusted for the 230 basis point impact from HPI and its related equity as well as the FDIC special assessment fee. In the quarter, management and other fees were a record $3.1 billion, up 5% sequentially and 10% year over year. Private banking and lending revenues rose 5% year over year to $776 million, as higher results from lending and deposits related to wealth management clients were partially offset by NIM compression in the Marcus deposit portfolio. Incentive fees for the quarter were $181 million, bringing our full-year incentive fees to $489 million, up 24% versus the prior year. We expect to make further progress in 2026 towards our annual target of $1 billion. Now moving to page 21, total assets under supervision ended the quarter at a record $3.6 trillion, driven by $66 billion of long-term fee-based net inflows across asset classes and $50 billion of liquidity inflows. In conjunction with our new long-term fee-based inflow target in wealth management, we are providing enhanced disclosures outlining inflows and long-term AUS by channel. Turning to page 22 on alternatives, alternative AUS totaled $420 billion at the end of the fourth quarter, driving $645 million in management and other fees. Gross third-party fundraising was $45 billion in the fourth quarter and $115 billion for the year. Moving to Page 24, our total loan portfolio at quarter-end was $238 billion, up sequentially reflecting higher collateralized lending balances. Provision for credit losses reflected a net benefit of $2.1 billion, including the previously mentioned reserve release associated with the Apple Card portfolio. Let's turn to expenses on page 25. Total operating expenses for the year were $37.5 billion. Compensation expenses were $18.9 billion and included $250 million of severance costs, driving a full-year compensation ratio net of provisions of 31.8%. Full-year non-compensation costs of $18.6 billion were up 9% year over year, driven primarily by higher transaction-based activity. While the operating environment for our businesses continues to improve, we remain committed to our key strategic priority of operating more efficiently and are maintaining a rigorous focus on advancing our productivity and efficiency initiatives as part of One Goldman Sachs 3.0. Our effective tax rate for 2025 was 21.4%. For 2026, we expect a tax rate of approximately 20%. Next, capital on Slide 26. Our common equity Tier one ratio was 14.4% at the end of the fourth quarter under the standardized approach. In the fourth quarter, we returned approximately $4.2 billion to common shareholders, including common stock repurchases of $3 billion and dividends of $1.2 billion. In conclusion, our strong performance this year reflects the strength of our client franchise and our multiyear execution on our strategic priorities. We see a highly constructive setup for 2026 as the improving investment banking environment and our deep client connectivity position us to capture significant opportunities across the entire firm. At the same time, we remain mindful that the operating environment can shift quickly. Economic growth, policy uncertainty, geopolitical developments, and market volatility are factors we continue to monitor closely. And as always, disciplined risk management will remain central to how we serve clients and allocate resources. Even so, with solid momentum and growth opportunities across our businesses, we are optimistic about the forward outlook for Goldman Sachs and remain confident in our ability to deliver for clients and drive strong returns for shareholders. With that, we will now open up the line for questions. Katie: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now take a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Press star then one on your telephone keypad if you would like to ask a question. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star then 2 on your telephone keypad. If you're asking a question and you are in a hands-free unit or a speakerphone, we'd like to ask you to use your handset when asking your question. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up question. We will take our first question from Glenn Schorr with Evercore. Glenn Schorr: Hi. Thanks very much. Great thoughts and detail in there. One narrow one first. I guess I'll ask it simply. How do you plan to scale wealth from here? And I want to include that if you could. Your aspirations. Meaning, we had a little experiment with United Capital, but, like, you're amazing in ultra-high-net-worth. And I'm curious about the rest of wealth. You've done a couple of things in RIA land, so maybe we could talk about that and then zoom out after that. Thanks. David Solomon: Sure. And appreciate the question, Glenn. I think our ultra-high-net-worth franchise is extraordinary. I think we have a leading position here in the United States. Strong position, but obviously with room for more share and footprint in Europe and in Asia. But I think it's a highly differentiated offering for wealthy individuals and people that have very, very complex needs from a wealth perspective. That business scales with people. You heard in and technology. But you heard in our remarks that we're continuing to invest in broadening the footprint and the coverage available and the resources to expand that ultra-high-net-worth footprint. As you point out, we did do an experiment with United Capital, but we've reached the conclusion that the right way for us, given our manufacturing capability, and asset management, is to really explore broader access to wealth through third-party wealth channels. And so I think you know we're making very significant investments in our third-party wealth capability. That includes partnerships with RIAs and footprint with RIAs. And we have great product manufacturing capability. We can use others' distribution very, very effectively given our brand and our very, very complete diverse product offering. And that will help us continue to scale. But in direct full-service product wealth, we're going to stick with ultra-high-net-worth wealth. And what's interesting is obviously, you've got a bunch of secular things going on that are growing the available people that need these services. You have a huge generational wealth transfer that's going on that's bringing a whole new generation into these services. And it's a very fragmented business, and we think we have a very differentiated offering with lots of upside. And look, you heard what we said about our capabilities and wealth and our target to continue to grow those long-term fee-based wealth assets by 5% as we go forward. Glenn Schorr: I appreciate all that, David. Bigger picture, obviously, really strong results, good backdrop. Middle of the range despite all these strong results because I think there's mixed operating leverage or people always want more operating leverage during big market peaks. So I'm gonna flip the comment around and just ask, what's your level of confidence you've raised the floor with everything that you've laid out and everything you've executed on? Because in the past, when markets pull back off highs, returns for you and others would drift back to the, like, low double digits and sometimes a little bit lower. But, like, I guess I'm curious about how much you think all that progress you've built, how much have you raised the floor? David Solomon: I think we've raised the floor meaningfully. You know, based on the work we've done, the growth that we've done. You know, in particular, the growth of durable revenues, which will be less affected, less affected, not not affected, but less affected if we get into some sort of a downturn or a more challenging environment. If you step back to our Investor Day, the firm's returns in the ten years before our Investor Day averaged nine and change percent. And so I think we now are operating with a global banking and markets franchise that should run mid-teens through the cycle. That doesn't mean you couldn't get a very tough environment where it runs lower, but you can also get environments, and this is part of what we've said about 2026, where it has the potential to run higher. I think we've uplifted the floor very significantly. Now, of course, in very severe downturns, it slows down activity. It impedes confidence. But I just think the firm is bigger, more diversified, much more durable, and better positioned when we have that kind of environment than we've been before. Now I'm not gonna predict the future, and I know it's never a straight line. But I think we've uplifted it very materially. Katie: We'll take our next question from Ebrahim Poonawala with Bank of America. Ebrahim Poonawala: Good morning. I guess maybe just sticking with the true cycle ROE, David, maybe the other end of the spectrum when I talk to investors, given that the stock trading, given the performance you've had, and two structural things seem to be happening at Goldman Sachs. One is obviously, the regulatory backdrop changing is creating more capital flex. And the productivity focus that you had double down with the Goldman Sachs 3.0, is it fair for a shareholder to assume that absent, like, big peaks in falls, that the business is rebasing to maybe something better than mid-teens returns towards closer to high teens? Or is that sort of misplaced and misunderstanding kind of the business dynamics? David Solomon: Well, I appreciate the question, and, look, our goal is gonna continue to be to work very, very hard to do everything we can to continue to take the returns higher. We were very pointed in our comments on the last slide in that presentation that we're reaffirming our mid-teens targets. You know, I certainly remember it. It's not that many quarters ago where many people on this call would ask questions about how we were going to get to the teens. So we've arrived. I think we were pointed in saying, this is an environment where the potential to be positioned to exceed targets in the near term is there, but as the previous set of questions just pointed out, there'll be other environments where there could be headwinds. So I think we're very comfortable that we are operating as a mid-teens firm. We think that we can do things that over time will drive upside to that, but we're not going to set targets until we're very comfortable that we further elevated the firm. I think one of the most important things coming out of the presentation is the next step in our asset wealth management journey to tell you that given the work we've done and the progress we've made, we now have more confidence that we can operate that business at a higher margin, 30%, which drives a higher return. And so we're comfortable putting that target out. And that, of course, elevates the overall performance of the firm. The other thing I just want to highlight that comes out of your comment is people think about the regulatory environment as changing the capital rules and giving us more capital flexibility. But I'd also highlight the regulatory environment in the last five years put costs and burdens on the firm that we now won't have going forward that actually gives us flexibility to invest over time in other things that drive growth. So it's not just the capital stuff, that's important. It's also the fact that we and others in the industry were burdened by additional costs that now can be directed to what I call more productive growth and return for our clients and for our shareholders. Ebrahim Poonawala: That's great. And I guess maybe a second one just on capital deployment. So it's very clear the bar for M&A is high. But when you think about just the stock valuation today, regulatory backdrop, there is a cycle or an environment where there is room to do something transformational. Just give us a sense in terms of do you see this as the right time or if the right opportunity presents itself to do something that would shift the mix, boost the mix of AWM business a lot more, or do you think that's kind of anti-Goldman's DNA to do something that would be too large or transformational? David Solomon: I appreciate the question, Ebrahim, but I'm gonna be very consistent with what I've said multiple times with this question. We feel very good about what we did in 2025, the T. Rowe partnership and the two small acquisitions. They fill in gaps. They accelerate our journey in asset wealth management. But the bar for doing something significant and transformational is very, very high. And it has to be high, one, because there are very few really, really great large businesses. Most of them are not for sale and available. And I think the cultural aspects of Goldman Sachs and what makes Goldman Sachs unique and different, there has to be a tremendous sensitivity to integrating business into it to make sure that Goldman Sachs can continue to be Goldman Sachs. And so I won't say that we don't look at those things and think about those things. But I really my key message is the bar is very high. I do think that we will see other things like the things that we've done that can accelerate our journey and therefore increase the growth trajectory of the asset wealth management business. Katie: We'll take our next question from Erika Najarian with UBS. Erika Najarian: Hi, good morning. I hate framing this question this way, but I can't think of a better way to frame it. In terms of the capital market cycle ahead, what quote inning are we in? And as investors think about the scale of potential upside to Goldman? Maybe compare and contrast the preconditions that you see for the capital markets backdrop in 2026 with 2021. And I'm only asking this question as investors try to think about the EPS potential of your company. And I think 2021 was is sort of seen as a ceiling in terms of what you could produce in this business. David Solomon: I'll give you a couple of things, Erika, to think about, and I appreciate the question. You know, the first thing I'd just say is as a student of these businesses for decades and decades and decades, I would bet you that 2021 is not the ceiling. That doesn't mean that in this cycle, we surpass 2021 because things can change and things can go wrong. But this business, when you go back and you step out and you look over twenty-five, thirty years, there's not a ceiling that hasn't been exceeded at some point down the road as you run through cycles. And I'm sure given the growth in market capital world and activity, the 2021 activity levels will be exceeded again. They might be exceeded in 2026. You know, there was a slide that my team was showing me that shows a range of outcomes, including a conservative outcome for M&A, a base outcome for M&A, and a bull outcome for M&A. And the base outcome is pretty close to 2021, and the bull outcome is ahead of 2021. I think the world is set up at the moment to be incredibly constructive in 2026 for M&A and capital markets activity. And I think the likely scenario is it is a very, very good year for M&A and capital markets activity. What could change that? Something could go on in the world, some sort of an exogenous event or a macro event that changes the sentiment. If you look at 2025, we saw that in April. For a period of time, and things got slowed down. Don't think that's the likely outcome. But it's certainly in the distribution as a possibility. But I do think that we are, you know, not yet in the middle of the potential for a full-on M&A and sponsor cycle. And I think over the next few years, barring some sort of an exogenous event that slows it down, we're gonna have a pretty constructive environment for those activities given the combination of fiscal, monetary, capital investment, deregulatory stimulus. You've got this combination of stimulus activity that I think is pretty constructive for these businesses. Erika, a couple things I'd add on that just to supplement everything David said. If you look at sort of industry-wide volumes of the various categories of investment banking activities compared to, say, the last five years, a number of them have started to trend above the average level. One that's decidedly below the averages remains the IPO business for equity. That's a lucrative business that, you know, we have a very long-standing leadership position in. And it's also the case that while, you know, some of the debt activities have been trending up in terms of overall volumes, we still haven't seen enormous volumes of sponsor capital committed deals or, you know, large-cap capital committed investment-grade activity. So there still remains, you know, other types of transaction activity as we progress through the cycle that is, you know, very strategic to clients, things that Goldman Sachs is very good at executing, you know, that could further propel upside across the capital markets line items. Erika Najarian: Great. And just the follow-up question is, I really appreciate how you laid out your internal opportunities to deploy the capital, excess capital, which is so much. Right? If you take into account the excess, your buffer, and potentially the redefinition of that capital, you know, as we think about, you know, a year where, you know, you talked about the cap markets, your ability to organically generate capital is also, you know, best in class. How do we think about how that buyback fits in? Appreciate your prepared remarks that if you're going to be opportunistic, you did $12 billion in '26, but it seems like you have plenty of room to meet or exceed that and, you know, and check off your wish list. Is that the right way to think about it? David Solomon: Sure, Erika. So, you know, I'll quickly give you our standard on the prioritization of the deployment of capital. And that remains unchanged, as David said. And that's what we'll focus on first. But to get to your buyback question, given the degree of excess capital that we sit with today, and our expectation that we'll continue to generate capital over the course of the next year, you know, buybacks remain an important tool in our toolkit. Over the long term, you will notice that Goldman Sachs has, you know, reduced its share count, you know, quite significantly and quite sustainably. And it gives us leverage to continue to generate EPS growth. So like anyone, we are mindful of the price at which our equity is trading. But we're also trying to take, you know, a strategic long-term approach. The first and foremost fuel the franchise to support client activity, but also, you know, drive returns for shareholders over multiple years. So buybacks continue to feature as an important part of our capital deployment strategy. Katie: Thank you. We'll take our question from Betsy Graseck with Morgan Stanley. Betsy Graseck: Hi, good morning. Just continuing on this theme, I wanted to understand a little bit about how the equities markets, revenues, and the fixed income revenues are aligned with the issuance calendar. Just wondering how much of the issuance that's going on is those two line items as well, or is issuance all within banking? David Solomon: So, thank you for the question, Betsy. I'm not sure I understood the very tail end of your question, but maybe I'll start off answering it, and then you can redirect me. I think across our FIC and equity businesses, we obviously have a very diversified portfolio of activities, both intermediation and financing. Even with intermediation, diversified by asset class, by cash, derivatives, and equities. And I think there are contributions that the primary market activity makes to enhance the overall liquidity provision secondary market making opportunity set. But my own view is that we'll continue to see an increase in the overall level of capital markets activity. And if that pulls through as well as we hope and expect, that should catalyze incremental levels of activity across intermediation activities as investors even more dynamically work to assess their existing secondary market portfolio versus quote unquote making room for primary, etcetera. So I think there remains opportunity on in that front as we move into 2026. Betsy Graseck: And then you mentioned that your backlog today is the highest in four years. Maybe we could just ask you to unpack a little bit. There's a lot of different backlogs, so, would you mind going through what you're anticipating, getting on unreleased into production, so to speak, as we go through '26? David Solomon: Sure. So the way we report our backlog consistently each and every quarter. So there's no change to the way we're reporting that. It's comprised of our advisory activities, our debt underwriting, our equity underwriting. We're very, very deliberate in our disclosures each and every quarter to highlight if the delta is in the backlog, have particular drivers. In this particular case, we say a couple things. We say it's the seventh consecutive quarter. It's the highest in four years. It's one of the highest levels ever. It is a large level of backlog, and we make that point because, obviously, the results that we just delivered in Q4 and for full year 2025 were very strong. But the indication is that not only we delivered those results, but more than replenished those results. And so that is what's giving us the confidence. And then all of David's comments that he made with respect to the flywheel and the catalyzing of activity, because the growth in the backlog is driven by advisory, we're also trying to give our investors the sense that that could in turn drive other pieces of activity across the firm, other types of activity that doesn't get registered in backlog and doesn't lend itself to that type of reporting metric. So that's sort of our orientation, and that's what I would offer up to help you get, you know, the insight on why we're putting that out there and highlighting it. Katie: Thank you. We'll take our next question from Brennan Hawken with BMO. Brennan Hawken: Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. First of all, sort of great timing on the Apple Card deal. Like, having that announced the week before we get the tweet on the limits. I mean, I couldn't help but juggle about that. I'd love to hear about obviously, you've got a long pathway to close, twenty-four months and then it closes. But could you help us maybe understand the right way we should be thinking about, like, platform's run rate after it closes and then whether or not there's any operating expenses given this is your last card exit. That might be running off? And what are the plans for the deposits, the Apple deposits that may not have been reflected in the announcement? David Solomon: Sure. Brennan, thank you for the question. Thank you for the observation. The same thing occurred to us. So thinking about platform solutions on the forward, it's really comprised, you know, the vast majority of it is the Apple Card business and the savings program. The loans are now obviously in a fair value, standpoint from an accounting perspective. So they're marked to market. The performance contributors will obviously be, you know, NII, charge-offs, operating expenses, etcetera. I think we'd observe from a seasonality perspective and across the balance of the year perspective, the same dynamics we've observed over the last couple of years of the portfolio where the first quarter is typically stronger in terms of reflecting, you know, pay down of balances and things like that, which then, you know, generally speaking, grow over the balance of the year. When you put that all together, our expectation is we'll have a small, you know, pretax loss for the year in the segment, but nothing that's material for Goldman Sachs. You asked, you asked also, Brennan, about savings. Like, you know, I just wanted to comment on this. Yeah. So there currently is no agreement to transition the savings program. We're gonna continue to service and maintain, you know, our existing Apple savings customers, and we're gonna continue to offer them high-yield savings accounts, you know, as Apple Card users. And users should expect that this service will be seamless. It'll be uninterrupted. And they'll continue to earn the same competitive rate they've been getting on their savings. And it's attractive to us. Obviously, we are very focused on the transition of the card, and there's a lot of work to do over the next twenty-four months. The transition of the card. But at some point in the future, we will expect to have additional conversations about the future of Apple savings. As we've mentioned, our deposits are diversified in tenor and channel, and that remains true even if we excluded Apple savings deposits. They're just a small fraction of the deposits. But at this point, there have been no discussions about the savings plan. Brennan Hawken: Got it. Thanks for that, David. And Dennis. I for my so know, one of the sort of debate points this morning with investors was on the efficiency ratio. And how things looked year over year. Now, of course, you have to adjust for the revenue impact of the Apple Card announcement. But and I might be doing the math wrong, but so correct me if that's the case. But when I do make that adjustment, it looks like there's, you know, a negative year-over-year impact on the efficiency ratio, like, it was a the efficiency ratio was stronger last fourth quarter versus this fourth quarter. Is my math right? And if so, could you speak to maybe what some of the factors were that prevented greater operating leverage and how we should think about operating leverage going forward? David Solomon: Sure, Brennan. I'll start with that. So first, thank you for observing correctly that the efficiency ratio is one of those places where based on the accounting for the Apple Card transition, it goes in the opposite direction versus our intention and the trajectory that we've been on. So that does explain why it's going in that direction based on the reduction to revenues. But you need to look at the efficiency ratio on a full-year basis. There have been some other things I've seen where people are looking at quarter, you know, year-over-year, fourth-quarter operating expenses or efficiency, given the way that we manage compensation and non-compensation expenses over the course of the full year, you need to look at that sort of in totality. And in this particular, when you do that, for the year-over-year fourth-quarter look in this particular year, it looks like you have, you know, a significant increase in operating expenses. But when you step back and look at the full-year performance, it's very clear that the firm delivered significant operating leverage. Obviously, we have reported revs at plus 9%. We have pretax at plus 19, and we have EPS at 27%. And so you have to sort of step back, take account of the provision release, and look at the full-year results. The fourth-quarter year-over-year, the only thing I'd add, the fourth-quarter year-over-year was affected by the way we accrued comp last year. And the way we accrued comp this year and the revenues in the quarter. And so it's you can't look at the fourth-quarter year-over-year. To Dennis' point, you have to look at the year. Katie: Thank you. We'll take our next question from Mike Mayo with Wells Fargo Securities. Mike Mayo: Hi. I guess it's an exciting time. This is a new era for Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs 3.0. And you're redesigning the whole firm around AI, so that could be very exciting. I'm looking for the output that you're looking for from this. I know it's early days, but whenever I ask about AI, it's always answers at the 10,000-foot level. Like, it's transformational. It's a game changer. It's a superpower. You know, we all get that. But what are you hoping to achieve? So, like, this decade, your revenues are up two-thirds. Your headcount's up one-fourth. So that's one way maybe you could frame the output that you like to achieve. But how much more in revenues? How much more in efficiency? Just you put some meat on the bones? Thank you. David Solomon: I appreciate the question, Mike, and I appreciate the way you frame it. And I understand why there's a strong desire to get more from us. What I promise you is you're going to get more over time as we're in a position to give you metrics, to give you targets, and to really explain it. Wanna step back at a high level. Just the one thing that I'd say, and I'd frame it slightly differently than you'd frame it, this is not a new era for Goldman Sachs. One GS 3.0 is not gonna transform the whole firm with AI. We are focused on our two core businesses, driving growth in our two core businesses, and both, I think, we're incredibly well-positioned and positioned to win. AI and this technology is an opportunity for us to drive productivity and efficiency in the organization. And we are very, very focused on it. Because it will add to our capacity to invest in growth in the business. At a high level, and I think I've talked about this a little bit before, there are two things that I would focus on. One, we have very smart, very productive people. And you can give them these models, these tools, these applications. You can put them in their hands. They're very good at playing with them and figuring out on a day-to-day basis they can use these tools to make themselves more productive, to do more, to affect our clients more. And we're pretty good at that. We put technology in our hands for decades. They're pretty good at taking that technology and figuring out how to use it. And that is going on, and there is progress in that. The thing you're talking about is our ability to, really, in the enterprise, deploy the technology to reimagine operating processes and create real efficiency. And we think there is an ability to do that on a basis that would be meaningful and significant for Goldman Sachs. It's not just to take cost out, but it's also to free up capacity to invest in other areas where we see growth opportunities we've been a little bit constrained. I talked about wealth management because somebody asked a question. And our desire to put more feet on the ground to broaden our footprint and our platform. We would like to do more of that this year than we're doing. But we're constrained because we're also trying to balance and deliver returns. If we can remake processes and create more operating efficiency and flexibility, that will free up more capacity from an efficiency perspective to invest in these growth areas. To change operating processes in the firm, and we've identified six specific processes that we're attacking. Takes an enormous amount of work to bring people along. We started doing this in the fall. We're making good progress. To be honest, I had hoped to give a little bit more transparency at this earnings call, but we don't have the full confidence to put information out publicly. But we are committed to giving you more over the course of the next quarters so you can track with us the efficiency progress and how we're deploying that progress into the business. And so we'll continue to keep you posted as we do it. But I think it's meaningful, but for the moment, it's focused on six distinct processes. Mike Mayo: And just as one follow-up, if we were to look at one metric for progress five years from now, would that be, like, revenues per employee? Would that be efficiency? Would it be headcount or how do you think about that? David Solomon: Well, if you look out five years from now, I think this technology and I think this has to be put in the lens of a journey that a firm like ours has been on for decades. I mean, I joined Goldman Sachs in 1999. On a revenue per employee basis. I mean, you pointed out a revenue per employee metric over the last five years. You go back and you look twenty-five years, you know the same thing. We continue our people continue to get more productive. I think this technology and the work we can do in One GS 3.0 creates an ability for us in the next five years to accelerate the pace of that one to get. And so that is a metric, but I don't think the only metric. Katie: Thank you. We'll take our next question from Steven Chubak with Wolfe Research. Steven Chubak: So David, there have been a number of significant developments in the area of market structure, whether it's tokenization, the recent expansion of prediction markets. You guys are always quite front-footed when it comes to innovation, and I was hoping you could speak to how you're evaluating some of these emerging opportunities within the market structure or tokenization landscape. Where do you see the most compelling opportunities for Goldman? And how are you positioning the firm to participate in a more meaningful way? David Solomon: Yeah. So I appreciate the question, Steven. First, I'll start I mean, you mentioned two things in the both things that we have an enormous number of people on the firm extremely focused on. You know, tokenization, stablecoins, obviously, there's a lot going on in Washington right now. With the Clarity app that was actually in Washington on Tuesday. You know, speaking to people about things that we think are important, you know, to us in the context and framing to that. Obviously, that bill based on the news over the last twenty-four hours, has a long way to go before that bill is gonna progress. But I do think these innovations are important. I don't think we have to be the leader, but it would not surprise you that we have a big team of people spending a lot of time with senior leadership and doing a lot of work so that we can clearly decide where we're investing in playing and how those technologies can expand or accelerate a variety of our existing businesses. And where there are new business opportunities candidly around those technologies. I think the prediction markets are also super interesting. I personally met with two big prediction companies in their leadership in the last two weeks and spent a couple of hours with each, you know, to learn more about that. We have a team of people here that are spending time with them and are looking at it. When you think about some of these activities, particularly when you look at some of the ones that are CFTC regulated, they look like derivative contract activities. And so I can certainly see opportunities where these cross into our business, and we're very focused on understanding that, understanding the regulatory structure, that's going to develop around that, seeing where there are opportunities for us to have capabilities or to partner to serve our clients around these. I think it's early on both. I think sometimes the, you know, the I think there's a lot of reason to be excited and interested in these things, but the pace of change might not be as quick as quick and as immediate as some of the pundits are talking about in both these. But I think they're important, real, and we're spending a lot of time. Steven Chubak: No. Thanks for all that color, David. And just a quick follow-up on the financing opportunity. If I think back five plus years ago ahead of the 2020 Investor Day, when you first started talking about the financing opportunity, you noted it was less than 20% of Goldman's trading revenue. It was 40% at some of your larger money center peers. And that you were planning to narrow that gap. And if I fast forward to today, you're now approaching that 40% threshold. And I was hoping to get your thoughts on how large you think that financing piece can grow over time. And your approach also managing risk against any potential drawdown or deleveraging events within that business. David Solomon: Yeah. No. It's a very good question, Steve. And you're focused on the right thing and so are we. I mean, I think what I would say is over the last five years, we've gone for being underweighted given our market footprint and our market shares and our wallet shares. To be more closely weighted. I think we've got a little bit of room. But it wouldn't surprise you in the formation of the capital solutions group and thinking about the connectivity between our asset management business and our origination capabilities, we see the potential to basically put a lot of this activity over time into our asset management business and allow our clients to have access, you know, to these origination flows. And so we're very conscious from a risk management perspective. We see opportunities to continue to serve our clients. But because of our asset management business, we have the ability to grow this, and not all of it has to be on balance sheet the same way. And so we're keenly focused on the evolution of that in the coming years, and that's something you'll hear us talk more about. Katie: Thank you. We'll take our next question from Dan Fannon with Jefferies. Dan Fannon: Thanks. Good morning. Another one just on expenses and really noncomp and one all you've been doing with the GS 3.0. Was curious as you start 2026, how does the growth for noncomp look versus maybe 2025 in the budgeting process? And maybe what's the difference in terms of some of those metrics? David Solomon: So appreciate the question. You've heard us say, you know, over many, many, many years, we maintain a rigorous focus on managing these expenses as tightly as we possibly can. There are a lot of them, certainly by dollar quantum, that are very linked with the overall level of activity inside of the firm. Notably, transaction-based expenses, and also, to an extent, some of the market development expenses. We're at a point in the cycle where, as an example, it's more important to feed some T and E into the firm to get people front-footed and meeting face-to-face with clients than it is to overly constrain that expenditure. Transaction-based, similarly, as we continue to grow, these activities there are necessarily transaction-based expenses that go alongside those. On the other side of the equation are those types of expenses over which we have more control, and we have a very concerted effort to constrain the growth of fees, which may be inflation-linked, or may be, you know, substitutes for other types of work. And we're focused on sort of grinding those down as much as we possibly can. Dan Fannon: Thanks. And as a follow-up for the private banking and lending, I was hoping to get an updated outlook as you think about 2026 and a backdrop where rates are coming down, how you're thinking about the offsets of revenue from both demand and deposits? David Solomon: Sure. So, you know, there, we've obviously been quite deliberate trying to, you know, make sure you have all the pieces of the puzzle. You know, as we head into 2026, we've dealt with some of the sequential comparisons in that line item based on the one particular loan that had been previously impaired, and then we had, you know, exceptional levels of revenue. We want to understand that as a comparison. That, frankly, still be relevant as we head into 2026. Our focus is continuing to grow lending activities and the lending penetration. We made good progress there. That's a piece of unlocking incremental growth in the wealth channel, remains very important to clients. So we'll expect to grow lending. We'll focus on growing our overall level of deposit activity across the segment. Yeah. But we do expect there could be some NIM compression given our expectations on the rate cycle. And so we just want to flag that as an expectation as we head into 2026. Katie: We'll take our next question from Matt O'Connor with Deutsche Bank. Matt O'Connor: I was hoping to follow-up on the 5% long-term asset flow target within wealth. You were slightly above this in 4Q and just wanted to get more color in terms of how you arrived at that and maybe framing how much is doing more with existing advisers and customers versus the efforts that you have to hire more advisers? And presumably attract new customers? David Solomon: So look, we think, you know, wealth is a big opportunity for the firm. We have a very strong business at the moment. We think there's a good opportunity to grow it. And we are making extra efforts to drive accountability and focus on our execution against that opportunity set. And so this is an external target that we expect you all to hold us to account. And we also think it's an important signal to send to all of our people in terms of how laser-focused we are on this opportunity set. As you said, we have a track record of delivering this type of annual growth. So we want to maintain the focus. That is one component of the overall sort of revenue equation and opportunity set in wealth management. But it's an effort for us to just apply incremental amounts of granular focus. This is one of the key underpinnings to the overall revenue trajectory in the wealth business. Matt O'Connor: And any color you want to provide in terms of talked about billing advisers. You've got some planned this year. You said you'd like to do more, but you're mindful of kind of managing the profitability. Just any way of framing whether it's your plan this year or just kind of longer term where you're at now and where you'd like to be? David Solomon: I think the best way, Matt, to frame it is this is a very, very fragmented business. My guess is an ultra-high-net-worth. Our share in the United States, for example, is somewhere mid-single digits. And that's probably leading share. So you think about there are hundreds and hundreds of firms and people that do this in a variety of ways. So with our franchise and our platform, I said before early in the call, it scales with people. There is lots of ability to still grow market share in this business if you've got a leading franchise. By adding advisors, adding footprint, broadening the clients that we touch, so we think we've got good trajectory to do that. And there's real focus on that. And I'd add too, Alts is a component of it. We put out specific targets around sort of Alts opportunity set. And while we obviously have penetration of alts within our clients, given that, you know, the average wealth of a client on our platform is north of $75 million. It's not only appropriate, but you could advise a distribution of exposure to alternatives and there's still probably opportunity to grow that with our clients. In addition to the footprint, the advisers, the mix of their activities, lending remains an opportunity there. And we do as we've mentioned, we see more opportunities to enhance our technology investment, the digital experience for those clients, and ensure that we're, you know, very well positioned with existing clients, and their successors. Katie: We'll take our next question from Gerard Cassidy with RBC Capital. Gerard Cassidy: Good morning, Dennis. Good morning, David. Can you guys share with us, in the past, David, you talked about the IPO market and the sponsors maybe not getting the valuation that they would like as being one of the areas that had to loosen up, and it appears like it is. But when you look at this year, and I think, Dennis, you touched on it in your remarks, that we're still below where's IPO business is still below the long-term averages. Is it market conditions do you think will be a greater influence on the market this year? Or is it still the valuation challenge that you've referenced in the past? David Solomon: I don't think you've got the valuation challenge we've referenced. I think you're gonna see a bunch of the sponsor stuff unlock, and you're gonna see more activity, you know, from sponsors. I also think one of the dynamics that we have, and it's just the reality of market structure and the way the world's evolved, companies are staying private longer, and we've got a lot of big, big companies in the pipe that I think just for a variety of reasons are reaching a moment in time where they're saying, you know what? It's time to go. And I think you're also this year gonna see a bunch of IPOs this year and next year of very, very large companies, which is something we really haven't seen a lot of. So combination of sponsor momentum and more of the big companies that have stayed private longer are now turning toward the public markets. And I think the confluence of that's gonna be constructive. Provided we have the kind of market environment we have now. Gerard Cassidy: Right. Right. Okay. That's helpful. Thank you. And second, and not to really get political on this question, but it seems like the M&A activity as you guys do so well and as your peers in 2025. It seems like this administration is more supportive of consolidation than maybe the prior administration. When you talk to executives about transactions, are they more focused on just, you know, the economic outlook and the opportunities there? Or does the, you know, regulation also factor into their thinking, thinking that the window is open now and they really need to move possibly before the change in administration in 2029? David Solomon: Yeah. Sure. Sure, Gerard. I think a way to frame it, you framed it. We had a very, very different environment from a regulatory perspective for M&A for the last four years. And that doesn't mean that it's just a blank check, you know, no regulatory oversight of large-scale consolidation. But CEOs definitely believe that the art of the deal and scaled consolidation is possible now. And when CEOs see that opportunity, because scale matters so much in business, business is so competitive. CEOs get very front-footed. And so I think CEOs and boards are looking and saying, okay. We've got a window here. Of a handful of years where the opportunity to consider big strategic transformative things is certainly possible. And therefore, you've got a much, much more front-foot forward, you know, across industry group of CEOs really thinking about is there something we should do? Is there something we should dream about? That really advances our competitive position? And that's leading to you see that filtering into our backlog, but I think that's leading to a significant upswing in activity provided we don't have some sort of an exogenous event that changes the current sentiment that we now have. Katie: We'll take our next question from Chris McGratty with KBW. Chris McGratty: Oh, great. Good morning. Lot of discussion on the capital impact from dereg. I think in your earlier remarks, you talked about expenses. I'm wondering if you could quantify that potential pool of money that could be freed and redeployed? I guess, how much of a drag has it been? David Solomon: Appreciate the question. I'll follow on, you know, David's comments. I mean, I don't think we're gonna give you an exact number, but you can imagine that there are a variety of, call it, different human capital consulting professional fee type surge experiences that have been observable across the industry over the last couple of years. And while there will always be work to be done, and each and every institution has a responsibility to still govern and run itself in line with regulatory expectations, the current levels of engagement and focus are on the safety and soundness of the banking system. And there's just a different formulation and mix of expenses required to ensure that most important goal of safety and soundness, and it therefore frees up capacity from some of the secondary or tertiary activities, which can then be redeployed to, you know, driving growth across the franchise and actually, frankly, strengthening the safety of the soundness of the firm in another respect. So I think I wouldn't look at it as much of a bottom-line unlock as much as an opportunity to redeploy towards helping to grow the firm and actually improve its resiliency. David Solomon: The only thing I'd add, Chris, to what Dennis said just to get a little bit more we're not gonna be able to quantify for you. But the things that you should look at, you know, obviously, if you go back over the last ten years, capital in the large banks has grown meaningfully. Over the last ten years. And now it's actually the growth has certainly stopped. And because one of the big things that drove the capital growth was the stress capital buffers for all the firm and the CCAR process, which was very, very opaque, there's now going to be more transparency around the models in the CCAR process. I think you're getting a different result there. So one piece of the quantification comes from doing the analysis to look at how SCBs change from kind of 20, you know, the late part of last decade up to 2025 and where they are now and how they've evolved. That's a quantification. The second one was there was an expectation that Basel III was going to put more capital on top of the stack. That's another way that people thought capital was growing. Now the perception is as a Basel III, is going to be more of a neutral event when it's ultimately closed out. And then the third thing is G SIB was supposed to be calibrated to growth in the world and market cap growth that was put in the statute, but it never followed through. So G SIB, as the world grew, G SIB wasn't supposed to grow as fast as it was growing, but it grew faster. That's now going to be recalibrated. That's another one. So if you wanna kinda calculate those differences, those are three important things I would point you to can look at the different banks and calculate that impact. Chris McGratty: That's very helpful. Thank you for that, David. Second question would be more of a business mix desire rate. If you look at the fourth-quarter revenue mix, trading 50%, IB 20, you know, AWM 25, dominant share, great growth. If you were to fast forward over the next few years, like, what do you think this mix looks like? Maybe do you wanna be viewed by the market? Because there are, I think, implications for the multiple that we all wanna put on your stock. Thank you. David Solomon: Yeah. We're gonna continue to invest in the growth of asset wealth management, and we would like the mix to continue to evolve. I think it can evolve very slowly with the organic growth differential. Because, you know, this is not an unfortunately, but it's a reality. We've been able to grow global banking markets faster than we might have expected. And even though we've grown asset wealth management very nicely, just given the scale of global banking markets, that's made the shift in mix slower than we might have all imagined if we go back five, six years and kind of think about the trajectory that we're on. We will try to find things that accelerate that. In addition to the organic, you know, inorganically. Again, with a real discipline around that, as I've stated over and over again. I do think if you look forward, the mix of the firm will continue because the growth in asset wealth management is faster. It will continue to shift. And we're focused on that. Katie: Thank you. We'll take our next question from Saul Martinez with HSBC. Saul Martinez: Hi, thanks for taking my questions, squeezing me in. I just have one question. And it is a clarification more than anything to Erika's question about where we are in the investment banking cycle. And I think, David, in your response, you said that your people are suggesting that in a base case view, 2026 investment banking fees could be closer to approach where they were in 2021, which was, you know, over $14 billion and, you know, we're running, you know, I think '25 was a bit over 9. The delta really is ECM, obviously, and, you know, advisory and DCM are kind of tracking to those the '21 levels already. But just wanted to clarify that. Were you talking about IV fees as a whole, or were you talking about the individual segments, advisory, DCM? You know, I apologize if it was clear to everybody else but me. But, you know, obviously, an environment where you do $14 billion of investment banking fees would seem like an environment where your ROEs for GBM and the firm as a whole would be, you know, materially above the mid-teen level. But just if you can just clarify that, that would be helpful. David Solomon: Sure. I'm sorry, Saul, if I confused you. What I was referring to was advisory fees only. I was, okay. I'm sorry. What I was referring to was advisory volume. Excuse me. Advisory volumes. Now advisory volumes are very correlated to fees. Okay? But the chart that I was referring to is one that looked at three different cases for advisory volume. Okay? So it wasn't equity capital markets, etcetera. I will tell you that what went on in 2021 with equity capital raising, particularly on the stock phenomenon, that's not going to occur in 2026. So my guess would be that equity capital markets level will still be meaningfully below the 2021 peak in 2026, but they will be higher than they were this year. That would be my estimate based on what we see today. But I was talking specifically about advisory volumes when I made that quote. And look. The advisory, as we've said over and over again, when advisory activity grows, the flywheel creates lots of activity. And we were talking industry-wide, not just GS. Looking just at industry-wide volume. Saul Martinez: Yep. Okay. Got it. No. That's helpful. Thank you for clarifying that. David Solomon: Yep. Katie: Thank you. At this time, there are no additional questions. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

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