Buyback Scorecard A Tale of Two Stock Buybacks Best and Worst Programs Industry Comparisons

The table below ranks the 269 companies in the S&P 500 that bought back at least 4 percent of their shares from December 31, 2011, through December 31, 2013. 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—269
	Company	Industry	Market Capitalization	$ Total Buyback	$ Total Buyback / Market Cap	Buyback Strategy	Buyback Effectiveness	Buyback ROI
	Average		$45,904	$3,097	8.1%	26.7%	2.3%	29.5%
	Median		$19,140	$1,452	7.0%	25.6%	1.3%	29.3%
1	The Boeing Co.	Capital Goods	102,566	1,801	1.8	42.4	51.3	115.6
2	Gilead Sciences	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	115,155	1,249	1.1	86.8	6.1	98.2
3	Yahoo!	Software and Services	41,024	5,512	13.4	51.3	29.8	96.5
4	GameStop Corp.	Retailing	5,705	614	10.8	50.5	26.0	89.5
5	Celgene Corp.	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	69,627	4,808	6.9	56.8	15.1	80.4
6	Boston Scientific Corp.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	16,049	1,100	6.9	46.3	17.4	71.7
7	Western Digital Corp.	Technology Hardware and Equipment	19,845	1,746	8.8	63.8	4.1	70.5
8	Lincoln National Corp.	Insurance	13,542	942	7.0	62.3	4.4	69.5
9	Southwest Airlines Co.	Transportation	13,126	940	7.2	45.7	14.4	66.7
10	Ameriprise Financial	Diversified Financials	22,382	2,964	13.2	55.5	6.7	66.0
11	priceline.com	Retailing	59,780	1,141	1.9	50.9	7.1	61.5
12	Northrop Grumman Corp.	Capital Goods	25,442	3,687	14.5	42.7	12.5	60.5
13	Seagate Technology Public Co.	Technology Hardware and Equipment	18,316	5,591	30.5	87.6	-15.0	59.4
14	Biogen Idec	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	66,039	1,385	2.1	54.0	2.1	57.2
15	Johnson Controls	Automobiles and Components	34,738	1,651	4.8	26.5	24.0	56.8
16	McGraw Hill Financial	Diversified Financials	21,177	1,247	5.9	35.1	15.8	56.4
17	Gannett Co.	Media	6,741	271	4.0	59.0	-1.7	56.4
18	Moody's Corp.	Diversified Financials	16,879	1,090	6.5	50.5	3.9	56.3
19	Mylan	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	16,616	2,000	12.0	47.2	6.0	55.9
20	H&R Block	Consumer Services	7,958	346	4.4	42.9	8.5	55.0
21	Flowserve Corp.	Capital Goods	10,994	1,230	11.2	50.9	2.0	53.9
22	MasterCard	Software and Services	100,255	4,191	4.2	44.9	5.5	52.8
23	Thermo Fisher Scientific	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	40,238	1,240	3.1	44.5	5.6	52.7
24	Starbucks Corp.	Consumer Services	59,075	1,160	2.0	38.2	10.4	52.6
25	Twenty-First Century Fox	Media	79,796	5,681	7.1	51.3	0.7	52.4
26	Biogen Idec	Capital Goods	47,349	2,752	5.8	39.3	9.3	52.2
27	CBS Corp.	Media	38,245	.,024	7.9	56.0	-2.5	52.1
28	Pentair	Capital Goods	15,482	1,050	6.8	39.6	8.6	51.6
29	Halliburton Co.	Energy	43,047	4,435	10.3	23.1	22.8	51.2
30	The Kroger Co.	Food and Staples Retailing	20,418	1,870	9.2	36.4	10.6	50.9
31	AmerisourceBergen Corp.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	16,174	890	5.5	35.5	11.2	50.6
32	PPG Industries	Materials	26,936	1,092	4.1	50.7	-0.4	50.2
33	SanDisk Corp.	Technology Hardware and Equipment	15,934	1,820	11.4	18.3	26.9	50.1
34	McKesson Corp.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	37,075	2,544	6.9	41.5	6.0	50.0
35	Ingersoll-Rand	Capital Goods	17,746	2,053	11.6	52.3	-1.7	49.7
36	Cigna Corp.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	24,181	1,211	5.0	38.0	7.9	48.8
37	FedEx Corp.	Transportation	44,889	1,465	3.3	29.6	14.7	48.7
38	Adobe Systems	Software and Services	29,933	1,505	5.0	42.0	4.6	48.6
39	General Motors Co.	Automobiles and Components	56,771	7,539	13.3	30.7	12.9	47.6
40	Harris Corp.	Technology Hardware and Equipment	7,461	622	8.3	36.6	7.7	47.0
41	Viacom	Media	38,974	7,053	18.1	41.3	3.9	46.9
42	St. Jude Medical	Healthcare Equipment and Services	18,078	1,825	10.1	28.0	14.6	46.7
43	Tyson Foods	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	11,496	987	8.6	26.8	15.7	46.7
44	TE Connectivity	Technology Hardware and Equipment	22,616	1,222	5.4	30.2	12.7	46.7
45	Time Warner	Media	63,077	5,565	8.8	44.4	1.5	46.6
46	SLM Corp.	Diversified Financials	11,465	1,129	9.8	43.7	1.9	46.5
47	Assurant	Insurance	4,826	805	16.7	29.0	13.1	45.9
48	Aon	Insurance	25,255	2,227	8.8	32.7	9.9	45.8
49	Raytheon Co.	Capital Goods	28,976	1,155	4.0	42.1	2.5	45.7
50	KeyCorp.	Banks	12,033	725	6.0	36.8	6.3	45.4
Source: Fortuna Advisors Analysis using data from the Capital IQ database. Financial Data from December 2011 to December 2013. Includes the 486 members of the current S&P 500 that were public for the full period. Market Capitalization as of: 12/31/2013. Companies Included here if $ Total Buyback / Market Capitalization is greater than 4% or if $ Total Buyback is greater than $1 Billion.