Buyback Scorecard U.S. Share Buybacks Rebound but Face Sharp CriticismBest & Worst ProgramsIndustry Comparisons

The table below ranks the 284 companies in the S&P 500 that bought back at least 4 percent of their shares from September 30, 2012, through September 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—284
	Company	Industry	Market Capitalization	$ Total Buyback	$ Total Buyback / Market Cap	Buyback Strategy	Buyback Effectiveness	Buyback ROI
	Average		$46,507	$3,389	8.8%	25.9%	-2.3%	22.5%
	Median		$21,933	$1,624	7.4%	25.3%	-2.5%	21.8%
1	Southwest Airlines Co.	Transportation	23,137	1,370	5.9	84.7	8.0	99.5
2	Keurig Green Mountain	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	21,136	1,241	5.9	130.7	-15.9	94.1
3	Gilead Sciences	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	160,917	4,131	2.6	84.8	-3.1	79.0
4	United Rentals	Capital Goods	10,655	517	4.9	84.3	-3.0	78.8
5	LyondellBasell Industries	Materials	55,670	3,449	6.2	61.8	1.5	64.2
6	SanDisk Corp.	Technology Hardware and Equipment	21,963	2,466	11.2	55.6	5.4	64.1
7	Western Digital Corp.	Technology Hardware and Equipment	22,735	1,663	7.3	62.5	0.6	63.6
8	Hewlett-Packard Co.	Technology Hardware and Equipment	66,197	4,260	6.4	42.8	11.2	58.8
9	Marriott International	Consumer Services	20,311	2,049	10.1	35.5	12.1	51.9
10	McKesson Corp.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	45,085	1,396	3.1	47.5	2.7	51.5
11	Apple	Technology Hardware and Equipment	603,278	67,860	11.2	6.0	41.1	49.5
12	The Kroger Co.	Food and Staples Retailing	25,537	1,916	7.5	52.5	-2.0	49.5
13	Halliburton Co.	Energy	54,868	5,189	9.5	45.3	2.8	49.4
14	Lam Research Corp.	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	12,134	1,154	9.5	44.3	3.3	49.0
15	Anthem	Healthcare Equipment and Services	32,586	4,494	13.8	42.5	4.5	49.0
16	Intel Corp.	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipments	172,394	10,566	6.1	20.6	23.5	49.0
17	Seagate Technology Public Limited Co.	Technology Hardware and Equipment	18,672	3,110	16.7	45.2	2.3	48.6
18	Lockheed Martin Corp.	Capital Goods	57,683	3,720	6.4	43.0	2.9	47.2
19	Ameriprise Financial	Diversified Financials	23,097	3,147	13.6	54.6	-5.1	46.7
20	Adobe Systems	Software and Services	34,508	1,675	4.9	48.7	-2.3	45.3
21	Humana	Healthcare Equipment and Services	20,098	806	4.0	36.2	6.7	45.3
22	General Dynamics Corp.	Capital Goods	42,488	3,857	9.1	40.3	3.1	44.8
23	Celgene Corp.	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	75,778	5,772	7.6	59.8	-9.4	44.7
24	Legg Mason	Diversified Financials	5,925	724	12.2	41.1	2.1	4.41
25	Moody's Corp.	Diversified Financials	19,958	1,745	8.7	53.7	-6.8	43.3
26	Covidien	Healthcare Equipment and Services	39,081	1,906	4.9	34.2	6.7	43.2
27	Xerox Corp.	Software and Services	15,170	1,760	11.6	37.6	4.0	43.1
28	Northrop Grumman Corp.	Capital Goods	27,398	4,899	17.9	41.8	0.9	43.1
29	Yahoo!	Software and Services	40,530	7,346	18.1	55.5	-8.1	43.0
30	Lincoln National Corp.	Insurance	13,988	992	7.1	55.3	-8.9	41.4
31	MeadWestvaco Corp.	Materials	6,898	471	6.8	27.0	10.7	40.6
32	Tyson Foods	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	14,786	909	6.1	57.2	-10.7	40.3
33	Allergan	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	52,955	1,672	3.2	37.8	1.8	40.2
34	AmerisourceBergen Corp.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	17,345	1,238	7.1	42.5	-1.7	40.1
35	Hess Corp.	Energy	29,025	4,131	14.2	43.1	-2.5	39.6
36	Mylan	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	17,015	1,500	8.8	44.6	-3.5	39.5
37	The Priceline Group	Retailing	60,765	1,131	1.9	40.0	-1.0	38.6
38	DIRECTV	Media	43,453	6,733	15.5	29.9	6.5	38.4
39	Aetna	Healthcare Equipment and Services	28,723	2,895	10.1	48.1	-6.8	38.0
40	Lorillard	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	21,569	1,244	5.8	25.5	9.9	37.9
41	Time Warner	Media	63,841	6,730	10.5	42.3	-3.1	37.9
42	The Walt Disney Co.	Media	152,824	10,614	6.9	34.6	2.3	37.8
43	Delphi Automotive	Automobiles and Components	18,379	1,222	6.6	55.5	-11.5	37.7
44	Raytheon Co.	Capital Goods	31,575	1,088	3.4	34.4	2.4	37.6
45	Robert Half International	Commercial and Professional Services	6,718	352	5.2	36.6	0.5	37.4
46	Microsoft Corp.	Software and Services	381,999	13,932	3.6	25.0	9.9	37.3
47	Cardinal Health	Healthcare Equipment and Services	25,222	1,283	5.1	37.2	0.0	37.3
48	McGraw Hill Financial	Diversified Financials	22,878	1,340	5.9	34.4	2.1	37.2
49	Union Pacific Corp.	Transportation	97,299	4,825	5.0	33.2	2.5	36.5
50	Time Warner Cable	Media	40,104	3,331	8.3	32.8	2.6	36.3
Source: Fortuna Advisors Analysis using data from the Capital IQ database. Financial Data from September 2012 to September 2014. Includes the 491 members of the current S&P 500 that were public for the full period. Market Capitalization as of: 09/30/2014. Companies included here if $ Total Buyback / Market Capitalization is greater than 4% or if $ Total Buyback is greater than $1 billion.