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%
201	Occidental Petroleum Corp.	Energy	76,656	1,526	2.0	5.3	12.2	18.2
202	Republic Services	Commercial and Professional Services	11,955	540	4.5	14.3	3.1	17.8
203	CF Industries	Materials	13,356	1,909	14.3	22.1	-3.6	17.7
204	Pepsico	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	127,197	6,220	4.9	17.9	-0.3	17.6
205	Altria Group	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	76,790	1,581	2.1	21.0	-2.9	17.4
206	Staples	Retailing	10,387	709	6.8	7.4	9.1	17.2
207	LSI Corp.	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	6,062	436	7.2	22.3	-4.4	16.9
208	AutoZone	Retailing	16,111	2,732	17.0	17.1	-0.3	16.7
209	Stanley Black & Decker	Capital Goods	14,274	1,113	7.8	16.9	-0.3	16.6
210	The Gap	Retailing	17,546	2,009	11.4	47.8	-21.6	15.9
211	Accenture	Software and Services	52,373	5,080	9.7	18.3	-2.2	15.7
212	Express Scripts	Healthcare Equipment and Services	56,599	4,055	7.2	22.6	-5.9	15.4
213	Praxair	Materials	38,276	1,213	3.2	13.3	1.2	14.6
214	Cablevision Systems Corp.	Media	4,798	221	4.6	6.8	7.3	14.6
215	Ball Corp.	Materials	7,472	979	13.1	20.4	-5.1	14.3
216	Varian Medical Systems	Healthcare Equipment and Services	8,230	833	10.1	12.9	1.0	14.1
217	PetSmart	Retailing	7,546	691	9.2	24.3	-8.6	13.7
218	The Western Union Co.	Software and Services	9,526	1,166	12.2	3.9	9.3	13.6
219	Waters Corp.	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	8,513	597	7.0	14.7	-0.9	13.6
220	Wal-Mart Stores	Food and Staples Retailing	254,623	12,573	4.9	19.3	-4.9	13.4
221	Kohl's Corp.	Retailing	12,152	2,105	17.3	5.5	7.5	13.3
222	The AES Corp.	Utilities	10,483	623	5.9	13.1	0.2	13.3
223	International Game Technology	Consumer Services	4,520	872	19.3	6.3	6.6	13.3
224	Expeditors International of Washington	Transportation	9,097	564	6.2	2.4	10.6	13.3
225	Merck & Co.	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	146,243	9,1007	6.2	22.5	-7.9	12.9
226	eBay	Software and Services	71,028	2,241	3.2	30.2	-13.5	12.6
227	Nordstrom	Retailing	11,949	1,240	10.4	13.4	-0.7	12.5
228	Dr Pepper Snapple Group	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	9,775	800	8.2	15.3	-3.1	11.7
229	Oracle Corp.	Software and Services	172,071	20,880	12.1	7.2	3.9	11.4
230	Chevron Corp.	Energy	240,224	8,636	3.6	12.5	-1.2	11.2
231	Baxter International	Healthcare Equipment and Services	37,745	2,393	6.3	16.1	-4.8	10.6
232	Kimco Realty Corp.	Real Estate	8,091	633	7.8	18.6	-7.1	10.3
233	Cisco Systems	Technology Hardware and Equipment	119,925	11,497	9.6	13.9	-3.3	10.1
234	Wisconsin Energy Corp.	Utilities	9,364	877	4.0	16.4	-5.4	10.1
235	Family Dollar Stores	Retailing	7,391	364	4.9	11.0	-1.0	9.9
236	Juniper Networks	Technology Hardware and Equipment	11,398	1,228	10.8	-2.7	12.1	9.0
237	Laboratory Corp. of America	Healthcare Equipment and Services	7,986	1,532	19.2	9.7	-0.9	8.7
238	Denbury Resources	Energy	5,860	546	9.3	7.4	0.9	8.3
239	Exxon Mobil Corp.	Energy	442,094	37,066	8.4	11.0	-2.8	7.9
240	Yum! Brands	Consumer Services	33,671	1,735	5.2	16.6	-8.0	7.3
241	The Coca-Cola Co.	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	182,422	9,391	5.1	11.3	-4.5	6.4
242	Sysco Corp.	Food and Staples Retailing	21,036	988	4.7	14.3	-7.1	6.2
243	Target Corp.	Retailing	39,992	3,336	8.3	12.8	-6.0	6.0
244	Leggett & Platt	Consumer Durables and Apparel	4,369	199	4.6	21.3	-12.6	6.0
245	Ralph Lauren Corp.	Consumer Durables and Apparel	15,951	955	6.0	8.9	-2.9	5.8
246	Jabil Circuit	Technology Hardware and Equipment	3,601	254	7.0	2.4	3.0	5.5
247	Deere & Co.	Capital Goods	34,019	3,209	9.4	9.4	-3.8	5.2
248	AT&T	Telecommunication Services	185,223	25,780	13.9	15.4	-8.9	5.1
249	McDonald's Corp.	Consumer Services	96,548	4,393	4.5	4.5	0.2	4.7
250	Caterpillar	Capital Goods	57,787	2,000	3.5	-0.1	4.8	4.7
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.