Goldman Sachs Leads Bank Stocks After Earnings Beat

GS is the only Wall Street bank, so far, to report increased trading revenue

The shares of Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) are up 4.9% at $188.72 in early market trading, after the company announced a fourth-quarter earnings beat. In fact, the company reported an increase in trading revenue last quarter -- the only Wall Street bank, so far, to do so. Now, GS stock is pacing for its fourth straight win.

Goldman stock just suffered its worst quarter since 2011 -- down 25.5% -- bottoming out at a two-year low of $151.70 on Dec. 26. Since then, however, the shares have rebounded a whopping 24%, and just popped north of their 40-day moving average for the first time sinceearly November, when GS was reeling from the 1MDB scandal.

Most analysts following the blue chip are still wary, with eight doling out a tepid "hold," compared to five offering upa "strong buy." However, the consensus 12-month price target of $224.22 still represents a 20% premium to current levels.

Ahead of earnings, put options were unusually popular, suggesting several option bears could be kicking rocks today. GS sports a 10-day put/call volume ratio of 0.8 on the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), which sits in the 97th percentile. This indicates that while calls have outnumbered puts on an absolute basis, traders have initiated bearish bets over bullish at a quicker-than-usual clip as of late.