Buyback Scorecard Stock Buybacks Wrestle with an Aging BullThe S&P 500 as Stock Repurchasers Industry 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.

The Best and Worst Corporate Stock Buyback Programs
Best
	Company	Industry	Market Cap ($ Millions)	Total Buyback (S Millions)	$ Total Buyback as % Market Cap	Buyback Strategy	Buyback Effectiveness	Buyback ROI
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
Worst
	Company	Industry	Market Cap ($ Millions)	Total Buyback (S Millions)	$ Total Buyback as % Market Cap	Buyback Strategy	Buyback Effectiveness	Buyback ROI
1	Nabors Industries Ltd.	Energy	3,757	250	6.7	6.6	-88.1	-87.3
2	Whole Foods Market	Energy	2,834	493	17.4	-18.2	-22.6	-36.7
3	Coach	Consumer Durables and Apparel	10,351	525	5.1	-18.8	-15.5	-31.4
4	Apache Corp.	Energy	23,594	2,861	12.1	-5.0	-22.9	-26.7
5	Mattel	Consumer Durables and Apparel	10,485	670	6.4	-4.7	-17.8	-21.7
6	Fluor Corp.	Capital Goods	9,472	975	10.3	7.7	-27.1	-21.4
7	Ford Motor Co.	Automobiles and Components	59,655	2,177	3.6	19.1	-33.8	-21.1
8	Discovery Communications	Media	22,900	2,727	11.9	7.6	-20.9	-14.9
9	Urban Outfitters	Retailing	4,625	500	10.8	-6.8	-8.6	-14.8
10	The ADT Corp.	Commercial and Professional Services	6,323	2,698	42.7	-7.9	-5.7	-13.2
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.