Buyback Scorecard As Stocks Edge Higher, Buyback Programs Get RiskierBest & Worst CompaniesIndustry Comparisons

The table below ranks the 276 companies in the S&P 500 that bought back at least 4 percent of their shares from March 31, 2013, through March 31, 2015. 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—276
	Company	Industry	Market Capitalization	$ Total Buyback	$ Total Buyback / Market Cap	Buyback Strategy	Buyback Effectiveness	Buyback ROI
	Average		$48,969	$3,699	9.2%	20.8%	-3.9%	16.3%
	Median		$24,408	$1,949	7.7%	20.1%	-3.6%	16.5%
1	Southwest Airlines Co.	Transportation	29,947	1,695	5.7	94.7	4.6	103.5
2	Darden Restaurants	Consumer Services	8,722	503	5.8	20.8	51.3	82.7
3	The Kroger Co.	Food and Staples Retailing	37,257	1,746	4.7	60.0	7.0	71.1
4	Edwards Lifesciences Corp.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	15,318	791	5.2	23.7	31.1	62.1
5	AmerisourceBergen Corporation	Healthcare Equipment and Services	24,963	1,270	5.1	48.6	4.6	55.5
6	Apple	Technology Hardware and Equipment	724,773	77,910	10.7	37.7	11.6	53.7
7	Anthem	Healthcare Equipment and Services	41,195	4,603	11.2	52.4	0.1	52.5
8	Humana	Healthcare Equipment and Services	26,637	1,391	5.2	50.3	1.3	52.3
9	Delta Air Lines	Transportation	37,059	1,775	4.8	79.3	-15.3	51.9
10	Biogen	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	99,063	1,246	1.3	56.2	-3.0	51.5
11	Tesoro Corp.	Energy	11,479	569	5.0	29.9	16.1	50.9
12	Dr Pepper Snapple Group	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	15,125	834	5.5	35.5	11.3	50.8
13	Marriott International	Consumer Services	22,212	2,556	11.5	43.4	5.0	50.5
14	Celgene Corp.	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	92,292	5,709	6.2	53.1	-1.8	50.3
15	Lowe's Cos.	Retailing	70,797	7,678	10.8	39.9	7.4	50.2
16	Northrop Grumman Corp.	Capital Goods	31,935	5,408	16.9	58.5	-6.3	48.4
17	Cintas Corp.	Commercial and Professional Services	9,334	714	7.6	39.6	5.3	47.0
18	UnitedHealth Group	Healthcare Equipment and Services	112,813	7,531	6.7	44.5	1.6	46.8
19	O'Reilly Automotive	Retailing	22,013	1,706	7.8	43.7	2.2	46.8
20	CVS Health Corp.	Food and Staples Retailing	117,659	9,591	8.2	41.6	3.7	46.7
21	The Sherwin-Williams Co.	Materials	26,998	2,791	10.3	32.1	10.6	46.1
22	Altria Group	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	98,505	1,132	1.1	31.6	9.1	43.6
23	Robert Half International	Commercial and Professional Services	8,179	335	4.1	33.2	7.6	43.4
24	Lockheed Martin Corp.	Capital Goods	64,193	3,805	5.9	53.0	-8.1	40.6
25	CarMax	Retailing	14,493	1,230	8.5	28.6	9.3	40.5
26	HCA Holdings	Healthcare Equipment and Services	31,559	2,616	8.3	40.0	0.3	40.4
27	MeadWestvaco Corp.	Materials	8,350	525	6.3	25.8	11.5	40.3
28	Walgreens Boots Alliance	Food and Staples Retailing	92,299	1,798	1.9	42.0	-1.3	40.2
29	Cardinal Health	Healthcare Equipment and Services	29,801	1,609	5.4	41.9	-1.4	39.9
30	Ross Stores	Retailing	21,861	1,242	5.7	31.6	5.6	39.0
31	Aetna	Healthcare Equipment and Services	37,467	2,671	7.1	43.8	-3.7	38.5
32	Cigna Corp.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	33,463	2,951	8.8	40.3	-1.4	38.4
33	General Growth Properties	Real Estate	26,165	1,123	4.3	26.2	8.9	37.5
34	Leggett & Platt	Consumer Durables and Apparel	6,361	268	4.2	26.0	8.7	36.9
35	General Dynamics Corp.	Capital Goods	44,816	4,698	10.5	44.6	-5.4	36.8
36	The Home Depot	Retailing	148,533	14,475	9.7	30.9	4.5	36.8
37	Fiserv	Software and Services	18,952	1,733	9.1	36.1	0.1	36.3
38	The Walt Disney Co.	Media	178,267	10,508	5.9	37.8	-1.4	35.9
39	Legg Mason	Diversified Financials	6,219	717	11.5	42.2	-4.7	35.5
40	Lam Research Corp.	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	11,190	746	6.7	39.3	-2.8	35.4
41	Eli Lilly and Co.	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	77,055	1,611	2.1	18.8	13.3	34.6
42	Corning	Technology Hardware and Equipment	28,776	4,527	15.7	40.8	-5.2	33.4
43	Yahoo!	Software and Services	41,597	6,936	16.7	46.5	-9.0	33.4
44	Union Pacific Corp.	Transportation	95,452	5,861	6.1	34.3	-1.0	33.0
45	Texas Instruments	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	59,881	5,690	9.5	32.7	0.0	32.6
46	Broadcom Corp.	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	25,934	1,347	5.2	14.6	15.4	32.3
47	CF Industries Holdings	Materials	13,591	3,080	22.7	20.7	9.1	31.7
48	Western Digital Corp.	Technology Hardware and Equipment	21,026	1,823	8.7	50.6	-12.6	31.7
49	Pall Corp.	Capital Goods	10,706	563	5.3	24.4	5.9	31.6
50	Medtronic	Healthcare Equipment and Services	111,150	4,473	4.0	31.7	-0.2	31.4
Source: Fortuna Advisors Analysis using data from the Capital IQ database. Financial Data from March 2013 to March 2015. Includes the 492 members of the current S&P 500 that were public for the full period. Market Capitalization as of: 03/31/2015. Companies included here if $ Total Buyback / Market Capitalization is greater than 4% or if $ Total Buyback is greater than $1 billion.