Buyback Scorecard Stock Buybacks Wrestle with an Aging BullBest & Worst CompaniesIndustry Comparisons

The table below ranks the 278 companies in the S&P 500 that bought back at least 4 percent of their shares from December 31, 2013, through December 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—278
	Company	Industry	Market Capitalization	$ Total Buyback	$ Total Buyback / Market Cap	Buyback Strategy	Buyback Effectiveness	Buyback ROI
	Average		$49,204	$3,543	8.7%	25.3%	-5.6%	18.1%
	Median		$24,279	$1,744	7.3%	24.5%	-4.7%	17.2%
151	U.S. Bancorp	Banks	80,433	4,482	5.6	17.3	-1.4	15.7
152	VeriSign	Software and Services	6,902	1,919	27.8	17.8	-1.9	15.5
153	Bank of America Corp.	Banks	188,139	4,895	2.6	32.1	-12.5	15.5
154	Honeywell International	Capital Goods	78,218	1,997	2.6	27.3	-9.4	15.3
155	Dollar General Corp.	Retailing	21,452	1,420	6.6	17.1	-1.5	15.2
156	State Street Corp.	Diversified Financials	32,773	4,111	12.5	32.0	-12.7	15.2
157	The Chubb Corp.	Insurance	24,400	2,835	11.6	16.3	-1.0	15.2
158	Northern Trust Corp.	Diversified Financials	15,873	790	5.0	20.5	-4.5	15.1
159	Parker-Hannifin Corp.	Capital Goods	19,168	1,176	6.1	24.8	-7.9	14.9
160	Oracle Corp.	Software and Services	197,480	18,849	9.5	15.0	-0.1	14.9
161	The Procter & Gamble Co.	Household and Personal Products	246,136	11,259	4.6	16.6	-1.5	14.8
162	American Express Co.	Diversified Financials	96,266	8,372	8.7	27.3	-9.9	14.7
163	Dollar Tree	Retailing	14,474	1,112	7.7	24.2	-7.7	14.6
164	Capital One Financial Corp.	Diversified Financialst	46,337	3,078	6.6	19.7	-4.5	14.3
165	Valero Energy Corp.	Energy	25,802	1,995	7.7	33.2	-14.6	13.7
166	Torchmark Corp.	Insurance	6,969	932	13.4	25.8	-9.7	13.7
167	KeyCorp.	Banks	12,042	641	5.3	28.5	-11.9	13.2
168	Kohl's Corp.	Retailing	12,331	1,508	12.2	11.5	1.3	13.0
169	Mondelez International	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	61,023	2,493	4.1	19.7	-6.0	12.6
170	Marathon Petroleum Corp.	Energy	25,290	4,924	19.5	26.4	-10.9	12.6
171	XL Group	Insurance	8,869	1,478	16.7	19.9	-6.2	12.5
172	Twenty-First Century Fox	Media	81,596	7,094	8.7	29.0	-12.8	12.4
173	The Western Union Co.	Software and Services	9,360	895	9.6	12.5	-0.4	12.1
174	Comerica	Banks	8,417	551	6.5	27.8	-12.4	12.0
175	Unum Group	Insurance	8,789	623	7.1	31.5	-14.8	12.0
176	PulteGroup	Consumer Durables and Apparel	7,957	381	4.8	9.4	2.3	11.9
177	Colgate-Palmolive Co.	Household and Personal Products	63,060	3,051	4.8	15.1	-3.0	11.7
178	Dover Corp.	Capital Goods	11,860	1,062	9.0	25.0	-10.9	11.4
179	AutoNation	Retailing	6,835	555	8.1	14.9	-3.1	11.3
180	Cummins	Capital Goods	26,180	1,051	4.0	22.3	-9.1	11.2
181	Symantec Corp.	Software and Services	17,706	1,000	5.6	19.3	-6.8	11.2
182	FLIR Systems	Technology Hardware and Equipment	4,552	301	6.6	27.3	-13.0	10.7
183	Varian Medical Systems	Healthcare Equipment and Services	8,667	1,070	12.3	13.0	-2.0	10.7
184	Airgas	Materials	8,604	378	4.4	15.7	-4.3	10.7
185	The PNC Financial Services Group	Banks	48,006	1,200	2.5	24.9	-11.7	10.3
186	Prudential Financial	Insurance	41,431	1,738	4.2	30.1	-15.2	10.3
187	Accenture	Software and Services	56,098	5,553	9.9	12.9	-2.5	10.1
188	Phillips 66	Energy	39,687	4,528	11.4	25.7	-12.5	9.9
189	The Coca-Cola Co.	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	184,928	8,994	4.9	10.1	-0.2	9.8
190	NetApp	Technology Hardware and Equipment	12,920	2,980	23.1	17.6	-6.7	9.7
191	Citrix Systems	Software and Services	10,270	2,047	19.9	0.5	9.1	9.6
192	Citigroup	Banks	163,926	3,029	1.8	20.4	-9.1	9.5
193	People's United Financial	Banks	4,553	464	10.2	15.4	-5.2	9.4
194	LyondellBasell Industries	Materials	39,748	5,871	14.8	34.4	-18.6	9.4
195	Bed Bath & Beyond	Retailing	14,110	3,058	21.7	9.0	0.0	9.0
196	Wal-Mart Stores	Food and Staples Retailing	276,808	7,698	2.8	8.7	0.1	8.8
197	Waters Corp.	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	9,387	639	6.8	14.2	-4.9	8.6
198	General Electric Co.	Capital Goods	253,766	12,598	5.0	13.0	-4.2	8.3
199	Coca-Cola Enterprises	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	10,689	1,918	17.9	20.0	-9.8	8.2
200	Tyco International Ltd.	Commercial and Professional Services	18,354	2,500	13.6	25.4	-14.1	7.7
Source: Fortuna Advisors Analysis using data from the Capital IQ database. Financial Data from December 2013 to December 2014. Includes the 493 members of the current S&P 500 that were public for the full period. Market Capitalization as of: 12/31/2014. Companies included here if $ Total Buyback / Market Capitalization is greater than 4% or if $ Total Buyback is greater than $1 billion..