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%
1	Southwest Airlines Co.	Transportation	28,724	1,495	5.2	101.2	2.0	105.2
2	Darden Restaurants	Consumer Services	7,273	503	6.9	7.6	67.4	80.2
3	Keurig Green Mountain	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	21,449	1,223	5.7	117.9	-20.9	72.2
4	HCA Holdings	Healthcare Equipment and Services	31,819	2,250	7.1	55.3	3.9	61.4
5	Yahoo	Software and Services	47,851	7,508	15.7	62.6	-4.2	55.7
6	The Kroger Co.	Food and Staples Retailing	31,548	1,892	6.0	54.1	0.8	55.4
7	Delta Air Lines	Transportation	41,169	1,350	3.3	103.8	-24.6	53.7
8	Edwards Lifesciences Corp.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	13,626	798	5.9	15.7	32.9	53.7
9	Apple	Technology Hardware and Equipment	647,361	70,940	11.0	17.5	30.7	53.5
10	Gilead Sciences	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	142,207	5,931	4.2	70.3	-10.0	53.3
11	Marriott International	Consumer Services	22,111	2,344	10.6	43.9	5.9	52.4
12	Allergan	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	63,330	1,490	2.4	47.4	2.7	51.4
13	General Dynamics Corp.	Capital Goods	45,606	4,078	8.9	46.3	2.2	49.5
14	Celgene Corp.	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	89,343	5,740	6.4	65.1	-10.1	48.4
15	McKesson Corp.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	48,134	1,037	2.2	48.5	-1.2	46.8
16	Lockheed Martin Corp.	Capital Goods	60,491	3,662	6.1	47.5	-0.5	46.8
17	CareFusion Corp.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	12,117	1,080	8.9	43.9	1.3	45.8
18	Lam Research Corp.	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	12,612	864	6.9	49.1	-2.2	45.8
19	Anthem	Healthcare Equipment and Services	33,923	4,169	12.3	47.2	-1.0	45.7
20	Hewlett-Packard Co.	Technology Hardware and Equipment	73,602	5,578	7.6	66.2	-13.1	44.5
21	Western Digital Corp.	Technology Hardware and Equipment	25,708	1,826	7.1	68.0	-14.5	43.6
22	SanDisk Corp.	Technology Hardware and Equipment	21,619	2,931	13.6	51.7	-5.3	43.6
23	Dr Pepper Snapple Group	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	13,935	800	5.7	29.2	11.1	43.6
24	AmerisourceBergen Corp.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	19,717	1,254	6.4	46.5	-2.4	43.0
25	Humana	Healthcare Equipment and Services	22,024	1,419	6.4	41.2	1.2	42.9
26	Northrop Grumman Corp.	Capital Goods	29,773	5,039	16.9	46.1	-2.9	41.9
27	Cintas Corp.	Commercial and Professional Services	9,176	491	5.3	34.4	5.1	41.2
28	Union Pacific Corp.	Transportation	105,918	5,443	5.1	39.5	0.9	40.7
29	Intel Corp.	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	175,462	12,939	7.4	33.5	5.2	40.5
30	O'Reilly Automotive	Retailing	19,540	1,800	9.2	41.2	-1.0	39.8
31	Nike	Consumer Durables and Apparel	82,834	4,366	5.3	41.3	-1.1	39.8
32	United Rentals	Capital Goods	10,181	728	7.2	64.1	-15.0	39.6
33	Legg Mason	Diversified Financials	6,090	735	12.1	46.4	-4.7	39.6
34	Altria Group	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	97,381	1,031	1.1	28.5	8.4	39.4
35	Cardinal Health	Healthcare Equipment and Services	26,719	1,609	6.0	42.2	-2.6	38.6
36	Mylan	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	21,098	1,000	4.7	43.6	-3.6	38.5
37	Moody's Corp.	Diversified Financials	19,986	2,114	10.6	45.3	-4.7	38.5
38	CVS Health Corp.	Food and Staples Retailing	111,045	7,977	7.2	39.0	-0.4	38.4
39	Raytheon Co.	Capital Goods	33,356	1,135	3.4	39.2	-1.2	37.6
40	Robert Half International	Commercial and Professional Services	7,935	322	4.1	42.0	-3.2	37.4
41	McGraw Hill Financial	Diversified Financials	24,158	1,142	4.7	32.4	3.2	36.7
42	Ameriprise Financial	Diversified Financials	24,404	3,160	12.9	48.9	-8.3	36.5
43	FedEx Corp.	Transportation	49,200	5,804	11.8	37.9	-1.3	36.0
44	V.F. Corp.	Consumer Durables and Apparel	32,347	1,019	3.1	36.4	-0.3	36.0
45	Navient Corp.	Diversified Financials	8,865	967	10.9	40.2	-3.0	36.0
46	UnitedHealth Group	Healthcare Equipment and Services	97,025	7,178	7.4	33.6	1.8	36.0
47	Microsoft Corp.	Software and Services	382,881	14,419	3.8	33.3	1.4	35.2
48	Lowe's Cos.	Retailing	66,936	7,615	11.4	36.1	-1.0	34.7
49	Lorillard	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	22,660	940	4.1	32.0	1.4	33.8
50	F5 Networks	Technology Hardware and Equipment	9,626	951	9.9	15.3	15.9	33.7
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.