Goldman Sachs reported record FY2025 earnings of $51.32 per share — up 26.6% — on what Wall Street calls an M&A super-cycle. But the 10-K filing reveals that 73% of the flagship Global Banking & Markets segment's $6.4 billion revenue increase came from net interest income surging 182%, not deal-making fees. Core franchise fee revenue grew just 5.7%. At $879 and 2.21x tangible book, the market prices a deal-making franchise — the filing describes a rate-sensitive balance sheet with a wealth management cost problem.
Charles Schwab delivered its most profitable year ever in FY2025 — $8.4 billion in net income, with 87 cents of every incremental revenue dollar flowing to profit. But the 10-K reveals a paradox: management returned $12.2 billion to shareholders while the held-to-maturity portfolio carried $7.9 billion in unrealized losses. Our analysis decomposes the one-time double tailwind behind record margins, quantifies a 2-3 quarter exhaustion horizon for the counter-cyclical NII advantage, and maps the dual-path regulatory scenario that determines whether the capital return was brilliant or reckless.
Interactive Brokers grew revenue 20% to $6.2 billion with a 77% pretax margin — but this isn't really a trading platform. The 10-K reveals 57% of revenue is net interest income, and rate cuts paradoxically helped: NII grew 13% despite 27bps of margin compression because $29.6B in balance growth overwhelmed the rate impact. A structural 0.50% spread floor creates a ~$650M NII minimum. Meanwhile, 76% of net income flows to the Peterffy family through the LLC structure — public shareholders get 24% of a financial machine with zero debt and $203B in liquid assets.
Morgan Stanley posted record FY 2025 results: $70.6B revenue, $10.21 EPS, and 21.6% ROTCE — the highest return among large bank peers. But the 10-K reveals a paradox at the core of those results. The $139 billion sweep deposit base driving record net interest income growth is the same asset class-action plaintiffs allege was unfairly compensated. Meanwhile, the 300bp efficiency improvement blends a durable WM non-comp leverage engine with a cyclical IS comp ratio tailwind. At 17.4x earnings — the richest multiple in the large bank peer group — investors are paying for a stability narrative that the filing's own numbers complicate.
Robinhood reported $4.47 billion in revenue — up 52% — with $1.88 billion in net income and a 42% margin. Then you read footnote 13: 55% of that revenue flows through market maker counterparties.