Goldman Sachs posted the highest earnings per share in more than five years as all of its major businesses topped analysts’ estimates and the firm paid out a smaller portion of revenue to compensate employees.

Net income surged 40 per cent to $2.84 billion, or $5.94 a share, from $2.03 billion, or $4.02, a year earlier, the New York-based company said on Thursday in a statement. That was higher than all 26 estimates in a Bloomberg survey of analysts.

Chief executive Lloyd C Blankfein, 60, has preached patience as he stuck with trading businesses that competitors pared. His firm's 12 per cent increase in bond- trading revenue and 46 per cent jump in equities surpassed gains at JPMorgan Chase, the biggest US bank by assets.

"In short, nothing not to like about these results," Chris Kotowski, an analyst at Oppenheimer and Co, wrote in a note to clients.

“Equity trading shines in all-around great quarter.”

Revenue rose 14 per cent to $10.6 billion, the highest in four years.

The firm’s return on equity, a measure of profitability that takes into account how much capital the business uses, was 14.7 per cent in the first quarter, compared with 10.9 per cent a year earlier.

Bloomberg