NEW YORK: Goldman Sachs reported the highest annual earnings in three years as underwriting revenue surged to a record and the firm’s reliance on trading fell to the lowest level in more than a decade.

Net income climbed 8 percent in 2013 to $8.04 billion, the New York-based company said in a statement.

In the fourth- quarter, profit dropped 19 percent to $2.33 billion, or $4.60 a share, from $2.89 billion, or $5.60, a year earlier. That surpassed the $4.18 average estimate of 25 analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

Still, CEO Lloyd C. Blankfein, 59, reported a fourth straight year of lower profitability than the firm achieved in the decade before the financial crisis, and the stock fell as much as 2.1 percent.

Goldman Sachs’s return on equity, a gauge of profitability, was 11 percent last year, and the company has struggled to reach 10 percent in the past three years, a level that Blankfein has called “hardly aspirational.”

Last year’s profit “serves as a reminder that the glory days of posting 20 percent-plus ROE is a distant memory,” said Euan Sanderson, a money manager at Standard Life Investments, which has more than $270 billion in assets under management. “Higher capital levels and regulatory constraints make it more challenging for Goldman to be Goldman.”

Fourth-quarter revenue fell 5 percent to $8.78 billion. Compensation, the firm’s biggest expense, was $2.19 billion as the bank lowered its full-year ratio of compensation to revenue to 37 percent from 38 percent for 2012. That was the lowest since 36 percent in 2009. Return on equity, a gauge of profitability, was 11 percent for the year, up from 10.7 percent a year earlier.

Full-year trading revenue fell 13 percent and accounted for 46 percent of the total, the lowest since 2002.

“Our work in advancing our client franchise and in ensuring continued cost discipline has allowed us to provide solid returns even in a somewhat challenging environment,” Blankfein said in the statement.

“We are well positioned to generate solid returns as the economy continues to heal.”

Fourth-quarter revenue from investment banking, the business run globally by Richard J. Gnodde, David M. Solomon and John S. Weinberg, climbed 22 percent to $1.72 billion. That compared with JPMorgan Chase’s $1.67 billion in investment-banking revenue and Bank of America’s $1.8 billion.

The figure included $585 million of financial-advisory revenue, including fees for takeover advice, an increase of 15 percent. Revenue from underwriting, a business led by Stephen M. Scherr, climbed to $1.13 billion in the quarter, including $511 million from debt underwriting and $622 million for equity offerings.

For the full year, investment banking produced $6 billion of revenue, the second highest ever. That was driven by record underwriting revenue of $4.03 billion. The firm said its transaction backlog increased “significantly” compared with the end of 2012.

Keith Horowitz, an analyst at Citigroup, called the fourth-quarter investment-banking results a “big beat.”

Goldman Sachs held the top spot among arrangers of global equity, equity-linked and rights offerings in 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

It ranked first in advising on announced mergers and acquisitions and fifth in underwriting US bonds, the data show.