Goldman Sachs delivered an upside surprise for the fourth quarter, reporting earnings per common share of $1.84 compared with $3.79 a year earlier.

The results handily beat Wall Street estimates of roughly $1.25 a share. But the larger story for the industry this quarter has been the top-line gravity, against which the big banks seem so powerless. Goldman Sachs reported net revenue of $6.05 billion in the fourth quarter, down a whopping 30 percent from a year earlier. Ouch.

That compares with a 17 percent drop in revenue at JPMorgan Chase, a 7 percent drop at Citigroup, and a 4 percent drop at Wells Fargo. Net revenues in investment banking were $857 million for the fourth quarter of 2011, 43 percent lower than a year ago but a bit higher sequentially.

Sales and trading fared a bit better. Net revenues in FICC were $1.36 billion for the fourth quarter of 2011, 17 percent lower than a year ago. Net revenues in equities were $1.69 billion, down 15 percent.

As for the always widely watched compensation figures, compensation and benefits expense--including salaries, discretionary compensation, amortization of equity awards and other items such as benefits--were $12.22 billion for 2011, a 21 percent fall from 2010.  The compensation to revenues ratio for the year was 42.4 percent. Dealbook notes that the compensation pool is enough to pay each of the firm’s employees $367,0570. A year ago, its pool would have paid each employee $430,700. (Employment declined 7 percent in 2011).

For more:
- here’s the release
- here’s the article

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