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%
51	Tyson Foods	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	16,315	885	5.4	52.0	-12.4	33.2
52	KLA-Tencor Corp.	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	11,566	644	5.6	35.1	-1.7	32.8
53	Seagate Technology	Technology Hardware and Equipment	21,761	2,257	10.4	53.5	-13.6	32.5
54	Biogen Idec	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	80,163	1,287	1.6	48.3	-11.1	31.9
55	Ball Corp.	Materials	9,334	829	8.9	24.2	6.0	31.6
56	Fiserv	Software and Services	17,314	1,469	8.5	34.0	-1.9	31.5
57	Tesoro Corp.	Energy	9,386	685	7.3	34.6	-2.4	31.3
58	Adobe Systems	Software and Services	36,258	1,700	4.7	43.1	-8.5	30.9
59	DIRECTV	Media	43,544	5,386	12.4	30.7	0.1	30.9
60	Autodesk	Software and Services	13,665	796	5.8	32.9	-2.0	30.2
61	CR Bard	Healthcare Equipment and Services	12,480	1,398	11.2	29.0	1.0	30.2
62	The Sherwin-Williams Co.	Materials	25,251	2,258	8.9	26.7	2.7	30.1
63	Intuit	Software and Services	26,323	2,243	8.5	23.1	5.7	30.1
64	Lincoln National Corp.	Insurance	14,982	900	6.0	50.0	-13.6	29.6
65	The Walt Disney Co.	Media	159,719	10,873	6.8	36.1	-5.0	29.3
66	Time Warner	Media	71,623	6,477	9.0	37.4	-5.9	29.3
67	Aetna	Healthcare Equipment and Services	31,242	2,659	8.5	40.6	-8.2	29.1
68	General Growth Properties	Real Estate	24,862	1,123	4.5	18.8	8.6	29.0
69	MeadWestvaco Corp.	Materials	7,401	525	7.1	24.7	3.3	28.8
70	Broadcom Corp.	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	25,651	1,119	4.4	13.7	13.2	28.8
71	Expedia	Retailing	10,802	839	7.8	22.3	5.2	28.7
72	The Allstate Corp.	Insurance	29,465	4,135	14.0	30.3	-1.3	28.6
73	Archer-Daniels-Midland Co.	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	33,477	1,284	3.8	38.6	-7.2	28.6
74	Medtronic	Healthcare Equipment and Services	71,068	4,173	5.9	30.8	-1.8	28.4
75	The Home Depot	Retailing	138,332	15,546	11.2	27.6	0.2	27.8
76	Time Warner Cable	Media	42,652	2,768	6.5	25.8	1.6	27.7
77	Morgan Stanley	Diversified Financials	75,947	1,863	2.5	44.3	-11.8	27.3
78	Automatic Data Processing	Software and Services	40,189	1,428	3.6	30.0	2.2	27.3
79	Xerox Corp.	Software and Services	15,678	1,243	7.9	43.1	-11.1	27.2
80	Leggett & Platt	Consumer Durables and Apparel	5,864	246	4.2	26.8	0.3	27.2
81	Texas Instruments	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	56,475	5,699	10.1	35.3	-6.0	27.2
82	Pall Corp.	Capital Goods	10,782	563	5.2	24.2	2.3	27.0
83	NVIDIA Corp.	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	10,898	1,701	15.6	28.0	-0.9	26.9
84	3M Co.	Capital Goods	104,514	10,864	10.4	32.7	-4.4	26.9
85	Marsh & McLennan Cos.	Insurance	30,961	1,493	4.8	28.9	-1.8	26.5
86	The Hartford Financial Services Group	Insurance	17,988	1,935	10.8	38.2	-9.0	25.8
87	Ross Stores	Retailing	19,652	1,169	5.9	22.0	3.1	25.8
88	Discover Financial Services	Diversified Financials	29,698	2,860	9.6	28.3	-2.0	25.7
89	E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co.	Materials	66,986	3,000	4.5	28.5	-2.4	25.5
90	Cigna Corp.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	26,919	2,615	9.7	38.3	-9.3	25.4
91	Visa	Software and Services	162,106	9,213	5.7	30.3	-3.9	25.2
92	Zimmer Holdings	Healthcare Equipment and Services	19,208	1,120	5.8	30.0	-4.2	24.5
93	Newell Rubbermaid	Consumer Durables and Apparel	10,326	882	8.5	32.7	-6.2	24.5
94	Walgreens Boots Alliance	Food and Staples Retailing	72,058	1,770	2.5	41.0	-11.7	24.4
95	The Bank of New York Mellon Corp.	Diversified Financials	45,670	2,695	5.9	29.3	-3.8	24.3
96	Fidelity National Information Services	Software and Services	17,649	872	4.9	33.8	-7.2	24.2
97	Nordstrom	Retailing	15,104	1,125	7.4	18.2	4.9	24.1
98	St. Jude Medical	Healthcare Equipment and Services	18,593	1,309	7.0	33.8	-7.3	24.0
99	Delphi Automotive	Automobiles and Components	21,531	1,481	6.9	45.9	-15.2	23.7
100	L-3 Communications Holdings	Capital Goods	10,745	1,623	15.1	29.3	-4.4	23.6
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.