Goldman Shareholders’ Hope for Bigger Payout Dashed by Fed

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s cushion of extra capital in the latest Federal Reserve stress test isn’t enough for the firm to match last year’s payout of dividends and share repurchases.

The Fed projected Thursday that Goldman Sachs’s total risk-based capital ratio would fall to 8.1 percent in a severe economic downturn, weaker than what the central bank estimated in last year’s test and barely above the 8 percent minimum. The figure was below Goldman Sachs’s own calculation of 13 percent, as well as those of analysts including Credit Suisse Group AG’s Susan Roth Katzke, who estimated 11.3 percent.