Why bank bear Meredith Whitney likes Goldman Sachs

Former Oppenheimer analyst Meredith Whitney, known for her early call that Citigroup (C) would need to cut its dividend to conserve capital, likes Goldman Sachs (GS). She's giving the company a "Buy" rating and $186 price target right before it reports earnings on Tuesday.

Whitney, who left Oppenheimer in February to start her own research firm, said that the amount of capital other companies need to raise will benefit Goldman's investment banking operations for some time. With a number of competitors either merged or gone, Goldman stands to capture a much higher percentage of deal values. Corporate debt and equity raising will likely be slow, but that will be offset from growth in government debt issuance.