Buyback Scorecard CFOs Share Their Stock Buyback Secrets Best and Worst Programs Industry Comparisons

The table below ranks the 274 companies in the S&P 500 that bought back at least 4 percent of their shares from June 30, 2012, through June 30, 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—273
	Company	Industry	Market Capitalization	$ Total Buyback	$ Total Buyback / Market Cap	Buyback Strategy	Buyback Effectiveness	Buyback ROI
	Average		$47,210	$3,341	8.5%	24.7%	0.0%	24.5%
	Median		$21,878	$1,619	7.4%	24.9%	0.1%	24.0%
1	Keurig Green Mountain	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	20,279	1,262	6.2	88.3	15.2	117.0
2	Southwest Airlines Co.	Transportation	18,583	1,220	6.6	73.5	10.5	91.6
3	SanDisk Corp.	Technology Hardware and Equipment	23,623	2,037	8.6	57.8	9.9	73.5
4	Tyson Foods	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	13,185	955	7.2	47.9	11.1	64.4
5	Western Digital Corp.	Technology Hardware and Equipment	21,697	1,658	7.6	59.8	2.5	63.9
6	Hewlett-Packard Co.	Technology Hardware and Equipment	63,027	3,634	5.8	24.0	32.1	63.7
7	LyondellBasell Industries	Materials	51,490	2,169	4.2	62.6	-0.9	61.2
8	Gilead Sciences	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	127,323	2,638	2.1	76.7	-9.6	59.7
9	Boston Scientific Corp.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	16,891	975	5.8	48.6	6.5	58.3
10	Delphi Automotive	Automobiles and Components	20,874	1,068	5.1	53.8	1.3	55.7
11	Corning	Technology Hardware and Equipment	28,721	3,977	13.8	29.8	20.0	55.7
12	Halliburton Co.	Energy	59,969	4,889	8.2	45.3	6.9	55.4
13	McKesson Corp.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	43,125	1,393	3.2	42.0	8.8	54.5
14	The Kroger Co.	Food and Staples Retailing	23,974	2,142	8.9	45.7	5.8	54.1
15	General Dynamics Corp.	Capital Goods	39,960	3,431	8.6	34.8	14.2	54.0
16	Raytheon Co.	Capital Goods	28,861	1,088	3.8	40.4	9.3	53.5
17	Lockheed Martin Corp.	Capital Goods	50,723	3,559	7.0	43.2	7.0	53.3
18	MeadWestvaco Corp.	Materials	7,430	431	5.8	26.3	20.5	52.2
19	Legg Mason	Diversified Financials	5,983	724	12.1	40.5	8.2	52.0
20	Mylan	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	19,270	1,500	7.8	51.1	0.3	51.5
21	Northrop Grumman Corp.	Capital Goods	25,617	4,433	17.3	45.2	3.1	49.7
22	Ameriprise Financial	Diversified Financials	22,786	3,136	13.8	52.0	-2.0	48.9
23	Valero Energy Corp.	Energy	26,735	1,288	4.8	65.3	-10.0	48.7
24	The Dow Chemical Co.	Materials	61,961	2,407	3.9	29.2	14.7	48.2
25	Lincoln National Corp.	Insurance	13,567	942	6.9	50.2	-1.7	47.6
26	Seagate Technology	Technology Hardware and Equipment	18,555	3,566	19.2	47.3	-0.4	46.6
27	Yahoo!	Software and Services	35,369	6,154	17.4	50.8	-2.8	46.6
28	Harris Corp.	Technology Hardware and Equipment	8,067	724	9.0	37.3	6.7	46.5
29	Adobe Systems	Software and Services	35,990	1,550	4.3	41.2	2.6	44.9
30	WellPoint	Healthcare Equipment and Services	30,096	4,571	15.2	25.0	15.6	44.5
31	St. Jude Medical	Healthcare Equipment and Services	19,683	2,001	10.2	32.4	9.1	44.5
32	Dover Corp.	Capital Goods	15,142	1,328	8.8	36.3	5.0	43.1
33	Allergan	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	50,353	1,845	3.7	30.1	9.5	42.6
34	Humana	Healthcare Equipment and Services	19,769	923	4.7	21.9	16.9	42.4
35	Assurant	Insurance	4,696	628	13.4	38.0	3.0	42.2
36	L-3 Communications	Capital Goods	10,413	1,501	14.4	36.2	3.7	41.2
37	Marriott International	Consumer Services	18,766	2,086	11.1	26.3	11.3	40.6
38	McGraw Hill Financial	Diversified Financials	22,601	1,609	7.1	36.5	2.9	40.6
39	Moody's Corp.	Diversified Financials	18,733	4,449	7.7	48.7	-5.7	40.2
40	Lorillard	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	22,104	1,330	6.0	22.0	14.7	39.9
41	V.F. Corp.	Consumer Durables and Apparel	27,110	1,019	3.8	33.8	4.4	39.7
42	TE Connectivity	Technology Hardware and Equipment	25,276	1,464	5.8	37.0	2.0	39.7
43	Xerox Corp.	Software and Services	14,457	1,870	12.9	28.7	8.0	39.0
44	Aetna	Healthcare Equipment and Services	28,978	2,640	9.1	33.8	3.9	38.9
45	FLIR Systems	Technology Hardware and Equipment	4,919	329	6.7	28.6	8.1	38.9
46	Apple	Technology Hardware and Equipment	560,337	50,860	9.1	3.5	34.3	38.9
47	DIRECTV	Media	42,694	7,949	18.6	31.6	5.5	38.9
48	Flowserve Corp.	Capital Goods	10,211	950	9.3	45.4	-4.5	38.9
49	Cardinal Health	Healthcare Equipment and Services	23,324	1,123	4.8	30.7	6.0	38.6
50	NVIDIA Corp.	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	10,345	1,487	14.4	22.0	13.6	38.5
Source: Fortuna Advisors Analysis using data from the Capital IQ database. Financial Data from June 2012 to June 2014. Includes the 490 members of the current S&P 500 that were public for the full period. Market Capitalization as of: 06/01/2014. Companies Included here if $ Total Buyback / Market Capitalization is greater than 4% or if $ Total Buyback is greater than $1 Billion.