Buyback Scorecard Soaring Buybacks, Sagging ReturnsBest & Worst CompaniesIndustry Comparisons

The table below ranks the 299 companies in the S&P 500 that bought back at least 4 percent of their shares from September 30, 2013, through September 30, 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—299
	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%
251	Monsanto Co.	Materials	39,925	7,917	19.8	0.8	-13.8	-13.1
252	Pentair	Capital Goods	9,190	1,527	16.6	-1.2	-12.4	-13.4
253	Twenty-First Century Fox	Media	53,563	10,687	20.0	-1.8	-11.9	-13.5
254	KLA-Tencor Corp.	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	7,830	926	11.8	7.6	-19.7	-13.6
255	Eaton Corp.	Capital Goods	23,983	1,104	4.6	-3.5	-10.5	-13.7
256	Loews Corp.	Insurance	13,122	1,239	9.4	-9.3	-5.0	-13.8
257	Exxon Mobil Corp.	Energy	309,999	19,770	6.4	-4.8	-9.9	-14.2
258	The Gap	Retailing	11,592	2,158	18.6	-8.8	-6.9	-15.0
259	Occidental Petroleum Corp.	Energy	50,535	3,965	7.8	-7.0	-9.1	-15.5
260	CBS Corp.	Media	19,241	5,478	28.5	-3.6	-12.7	-15.9
261	Airgas	Materials	6,669	375	5.6	0.2	-17.1	-16.9
262	Caterpillar	Capital Goods	39,388	6,263	15.9	-2.1	-16.2	-17.9
263	Jacobs Engineering Group	Capital Goods	4,634	501	10.8	-17.1	-1.2	-18.0
264	Franklin Resources	Diversified Financials	22,871	1,492	6.5	-4.0	-15.1	-18.4
265	NetApp	Technology Hardware and Equipment	8,729	2,660	30.5	-12.4	-7.5	-18.9
266	Navient Corp.	Diversified Financials	4,204	1,342	31.9	0.0	-19.0	-19.0
267	Dover Corp.	Capital Goods	8,947	1,251	14.0	-4.7	-15.2	-19.2
268	Whole Foods Market	Food and Staples Retailing	11,298	1,091	9.7	-19.1	-0.5	-19.5
269	Garmin	Consumer Durables and Apparel	6,851	417	6.1	3.9	-22.7	-19.7
270	Discovery Communications	Media	14,854	2,334	15.7	-14.7	-6.4	-20.1
271	United Technologies Corp.	Capital Goods	79,254	4,940	6.2	-0.9	-20.9	-21.6
272	QUALCOMM	Technology Hardware and Equipment	84,421	15,795	18.7	-2.6	-19.6	-21.7
273	Chevron Corp.	Energy	148,332	5,600	3.8	-14.2	-9.2	-22.1
274	Ralph Lauren Corp.	Consumer Durables and Apparel	10,120	1,179	11.7	-16.3	-7.5	-22.6
275	Emerson Electric Co.	Capital Goods	29,026	3,549	12.2	-7.7	-16.6	-23.0
276	Weyerhaeuser Co.	Real Estate	14,058	564	4.0	5.4	-27.8	-23.9
277	Owens-Illinois	Materials	3,331	148	4.4	-15.4	-10.5	-24.3
278	Scripps Networks Interactive	Media	6,322	1,487	23.5	-10.6	-15.8	-24.7
279	Coach	Consumer Durables and Apparel	8,028	350	4.4	-22.6	-2.8	-24.7
280	Quanta Services	Capital Goods	4,943	1,575	31.9	-3.0	-23.1	-25.4
281	Hess Corp.	Energy	14,370	4,859	33.8	-11.2	-16.9	-26.3
282	Teradata Corp.	Software and Services	4,101	1,287	31.4	-26.1	-2.5	-28.0
283	Norfolk Southern Corp.	Transportation	23,026	1,378	6.0	6.6	-33.8	-29.4
284	Fluor Corp.	Capital Goods	6,138	1,334	21.7	-13.9	-18.6	-29.9
285	Flowserve Corp.	Capital Goods	5,487	584	10.7	-10.1	-22.2	-30.1
286	Viacom	Media	17,221	4,226	24.5	-18.6	-17.7	-33.0
287	Marathon Oil Corp.	Energy	10,429	1,000	9.6	-25.0	-12.0	-34.0
288	FMC Technologies	Energy	7,114	441	6.2	-21.8	-17.0	-35.1
289	United Rentals	Capital Goods	5,727	1,296	22.6	11.8	-42.9	-36.1
290	Apache Corp.	Energy	14,802	2,612	17.6	-25.1	-17.9	-38.5
291	Murphy Oil Corp.	Energy	4,181	875	20.9	-24.5	-19.0	-38.8
292	Fossil Group	Consumer Durables and Apparel	2,690	791	29.4	-25.5	-18.4	-39.2
293	SanDisk Corp.	Technology Hardware and Equipment	11,107	2,703	24.3	-1.6	-39.9	-40.9
294	Keurig Green Mountain	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	8,033	2,086	26.0	-10.9	-36.8	-43.7
295	NRG Energy	Utilities	4,910	392	8.0	-12.6	-37.6	-45.4
296	National Oilwell Varco	Energy	14,450	3,000	20.8	-19.9	-32.6	-46.0
297	Micron Technology	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	16,125	960	6.0	8.9	-52.0	-47.8
298	Applied Materials	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	17,637	1,325	7.5	4.4	-57.0	-55.1
299	Michael Kors Holdings	Consumer Durables and Apparel	8,170	1,249	15.3	-22.1	-46.6	-58.4
Source: Fortuna Advisors Analysis using data from the Capital IQ database. Financial Data from September 2013 to September 2015. Includes the 486 members of the current S&P 500 that were public for the full period. Market Capitalization as of: 09/30/2015. Companies included here if $ Total Buyback / Market Capitalization is greater than 4% or if $ Total Buyback is greater than $1 billion.