| Buyback Scorecard CFOs Share Their Stock Buyback Secrets Best and Worst Programs Industry Comparisons |
The table below ranks the 270 companies in the S&P 500 that bought back at least 4 percent of their shares from March 31, 2012, through March 31, 2014. The companies are ranked according to their return on investment from these repurchases. As calculated by Fortuna Advisors, a New York City-based consultancy that compiled the data for Institutional Investor , buyback ROI measures the overall rate of return of buybacks, based on the internal rate of return of the cash flows associated with them. Buyback strategy tracks the performance of the underlying stock in terms of annualized total shareholder return. Once Fortuna determines buyback ROI and buyback strategy, buyback effectiveness can then be calculated as simply the difference between the two, determined as compounded return.
| How the S&P 500 Stack Up as Stock Repurchasers 1—50 | 51—100 | 101—150 | 151—200 | 201—250 | 251—270 | ||||||||
| Company | Industry | Market Capitalization | $ Total Buyback | $ Total Buyback / Market Cap | Buyback Strategy | Buyback Effectiveness | Buyback ROI | |
| Average | $46,040 | $3,349 | 8.6% | 22.3% | 4.3% | 27.5% | ||
| Median | $21,057 | $1,530 | 7.2% | 22.4% | 3.4% | 27.4% | ||
| 101 | 3M Co. | Capital Goods | 89,238 | 8,600 | 9.6 | 26.6 | 4.8 | 32.7 |
| 102 | Becton, Dickinson and Co. | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 22,599 | 1,164 | 5.2 | 23.8 | 7.0 | 32.5 |
| 103 | WellPoint | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 28,119 | 4,250 | 15.1 | 18.2 | 12.0 | 32.4 |
| 104 | CR Bard | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 11,460 | 1,344 | 11.7 | 23.0 | 7.3 | 31.9 |
| 105 | Rockwell Collins | Capital Goods | 10,770 | 862 | 8.0 | 18.3 | 11.5 | 31.9 |
| 106 | Amphenol Corp. | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 14,499 | 744 | 5.1 | 28.7 | 2.5 | 31.9 |
| 107 | American International Group | Insurance | 72,467 | 11,464 | 15.8 | 35.8 | -3.0 | 31.7 |
| 108 | Zimmer Holdings | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 15,942 | 1,464 | 9.2 | 26.9 | 3.6 | 31.4 |
| 109 | FedEx Corp. | Transportation | 39,174 | 4,230 | 10.8 | 22.4 | 7.3 | 31.3 |
| 110 | Newell Rubbermaid | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 8,339 | 596 | 7.1 | 34.1 | -2.1 | 31.3 |
| 111 | General Motors Co. | Automobiles and Components | 54,939 | 7,539 | 13.7 | 21.0 | 8.4 | 31.2 |
| 112 | Cigna Corp. | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 22,727 | 1,826 | 8.0 | 35.2 | -3.1 | 31.1 |
| 113 | Intuit | Software and Services | 22,022 | 1,844 | 8.4 | 16.6 | 12.4 | 31.1 |
| 114 | Omnicom Group | Media | 18,746 | 1,479 | 7.9 | 27.1 | 3.2 | 31.1 |
| 115 | Marsh & McLennan Cos. | Insurance | 27,084 | 3.8 | 25.6 | 4.4 | 31.0 | 31.9 |
| 116 | Zions BanCorp. | Banks | 5,727 | 923 | 16.1 | 26.7 | 3.1 | 30.6 |
| 117 | Humana | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 17,440 | 947 | 5.4 | 9.6 | 19.0 | 30.5 |
| 118 | The Boeing Co. | Capital Goods | 93,290 | 4,301 | 4.6 | 34.8 | -3.2 | 30.4 |
| 119 | Pall Corp. | Capital Goods | 9,822 | 671 | 6.8 | 19.8 | 8.7 | 30.2 |
| 120 | Navient Corp. | Diversified Financials | 10,680 | 720 | 6.7 | 29.2 | 0.7 | 30.2 |
| 121 | State Street Corp. | Diversified Financials | 30,020 | 4,724 | 15.7 | 30.5 | -0.4 | 30.1 |
| 122 | Time Warner | Media | 58,318 | 5,831 | 10.0 | 35.8 | -4.4 | 29.8 |
| 123 | United Technologies Corp. | Capital Goods | 107,077 | 1,535 | 1.4 | 21.5 | 6.5 | 29.4 |
| 124 | AutoZone | Retailing | 17,846 | 2,759 | 15.5 | 20.0 | 7.8 | 29.3 |
| 125 | Robert Half International | Commercial and Professional Services | 5,767 | 323 | 5.6 | 20.8 | 6.8 | 29.0 |
| 126 | Medtronic | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 61,590 | 3,800 | 6.2 | 25.0 | 3.1 | 28.9 |
| 127 | Wyndham Worldwide Corp. | Consumer Services | 9,384 | 1,220 | 13.0 | 33.0 | -3.1 | 28.9 |
| 128 | Fluor Corp. | Capital Goods | 12,464 | 754 | 6.1 | 16.5 | 10.3 | 28.5 |
| 129 | Wells Fargo & Co. | Banks | 261,218 | 10,235 | 3.9 | 25.9 | 1.9 | 28.3 |
| 130 | Illinois Tool Works | Capital Goods | 34,555 | 4,566 | 13.2 | 25.0 | 2.5 | 28.1 |
| 131 | Apple | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 479,069 | 45,860 | 9.6 | 4.8 | 22.1 | 28.0 |
| 132 | The Goldman Sachs Group | Diversified Financials | 74,296 | 12,169 | 16.4 | 23.4 | 3.6 | 27.8 |
| 133 | Marriott International | Consumer Services | 16,516 | 2,163 | 13.1 | 22.4 | 4.2 | 27.6 |
| 134 | The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. | Diversified Financials | 40,117 | 2,151 | 5.4 | 25.1 | 1.9 | 27.5 |
| 135 | The TJX Cos. | Retailing | 43,134 | 2,879 | 6.7 | 31.9 | -3.3 | 27.4 |
| 136 | Lorillard | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 19,588 | 1,175 | 6.0 | 17.0 | 8.9 | 27.4 |
| 137 | Norfolk Southern Corp. | Transportation | 32,074 | 1,565 | 4.9 | 17.5 | 8.1 | 27.0 |
| 138 | Covidien | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 33,170 | 2,677 | 8.1 | 24.6 | 1.9 | 27.0 |
| 139 | Invesco | Diversified Financials | 16,027 | 780 | 4.9 | 23.5 | 2.4 | 26.5 |
| 140 | VeriSign | Software and Services | 7,199 | 1,432 | 19.9 | 23.8 | 2.1 | 26.4 |
| 141 | Johnson & Johnson | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 277,826 | 29,347 | 10.6 | 23.3 | 2.5 | 26.4 |
| 142 | Lam Research Corp. | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 8,927 | 1,821 | 20.4 | 12.6 | 12.2 | 26.4 |
| 143 | JPMorgan Chase & Co. | Banks | 228,004 | 6,612 | 2.9 | 24.5 | 1.4 | 26.2 |
| 144 | CF Industries Holdings | Materials | 14,457 | 2,691 | 18.6 | 17.9 | 7.0 | 26.2 |
| 145 | The Hartford Financial Services Group | Insurance | 15,742 | 900 | 5.7 | 35.7 | -7.2 | 25.9 |
| 146 | Harley-Davidson | Automobiles and Components | 14,655 | 858 | 5.9 | 22.3 | 3.0 | 25.9 |
| 147 | Cummins | Capital Goods | 27,396 | 1,048 | 3.8 | 12.2 | 12.0 | 25.7 |
| 148 | Scripps Networks Interactive | Media | 11,105 | 853 | 7.7 | 32.5 | -5.2 | 25.7 |
| 149 | Merck & Co. | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 166,939 | 9,818 | 5.9 | 23.7 | 1.4 | 25.4 |
| 150 | Automatic Data Processing | Software and Services | 37,226 | 1,406 | 3.8 | 22.1 | 2.6 | 25.3 |
| Source: Fortuna Advisors Analysis using data from the Capital IQ database. Financial Data from March 2012 to March 2014. Includes the 490 members of the current S&P 500 that were public for the full period. Market Capitalization as of: 03/31/2014. Companies Included here if $ Total Buyback / Market Capitalization is greater than 4% or if $ Total Buyback is greater than $1 Billion. | ||||||||
