| 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. | ||||||||
