Buyback Scorecard The Risk in No-Risk Stock BuybacksBest & Worst CompaniesIndustry Comparisons

The table below ranks the 299 companies in the S&P 500 that bought back at least 4 percent or more than $1 billion of their shares from December 31, 2013 to December 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—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%
151	L-3 Communications Holdings	Capital Goods	9,368	1,078	11.5	11.3	-6.4	4.1
152	Marsh & McLennan Cos.	Insurance	28,925	2,313	8.0	11.4	-6.7	3.9
153	Dollar General Corp.	Retailing	20,909	1,810	8.7	8.0	-3.9	3.8
154	Sealed Air Corp.	Materials	8,805	986	11.2	24.9	-17.1	3.5
155	E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co.	Materials	58,369	1,343	2.3	7.7	-4.2	3.2
156	Xylem	Capital Goods	6,547	313	4.8	7.6	-4.1	3.2
157	The ADT Corp.	Commercial and Professional Services	5,440	554	10.2	-7.4	11.4	3.2
158	The Allstate Corp.	Insurance	24,048	5,109	21.2	10.0	-6.3	3.1
159	Bank of America Corp.	Banks	175,242	4,049	2.3	7.7	-4.8	2.6
160	Unum Group	Insurance	8,104	724	8.9	4.6	-2.0	2.5
161	Colgate-Palmolive Co.	Household and Personal Products	59,753	3,081	5.2	4.2	-1.6	2.5
162	U.S. Bancorp	Banks	74,637	4,390	5.9	8.0	-5.2	2.4
163	CarMax	Retailing	10,662	1,857	17.4	7.9	-5.3	2.2
164	Alliance Data Systems Corp.	Software and Services	16,909	1,238	7.3	8.8	-6.2	2.1
165	HCA Holdings	Healthcare Equipment and Services	27,571	4,147	15.0	22.9	-17.0	2.0
166	V.F. Corp.	Consumer Durables and Apparel	26,538	1,464	5.5	11.4	-8.6	1.8
167	Dun & Bradstreet Corp.	Commercial and Professional Services	3,755	153	4.1	-0.1	1.7	1.6
168	Johnson & Johnson	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	284,220	12,414	4.4	7.5	-5.5	1.5
169	Prudential Financial	Insurance	36,553	2,664	7.3	1.1	0.2	1.3
170	Citigroup	Banks	154,163	7,620	4.9	2.6	-1.4	1.1
171	Amgen	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	122,450	2,005	1.6	19.8	-15.9	0.8
172	Fifth Third Bancorp	Banks	15,966	1,504	9.4	3.1	-2.9	0.0
173	GameStop Corp.	Retailing	2,935	482	16.4	-10.3	10.6	-0.8
174	Akamai Technologies	Software and Services	9,365	571	6.1	14.1	-13.1	-0.9
175	Lincoln National Corp.	Insurance	12,438	1,350	10.9	6.0	-6.9	-1.4
176	PPG Industries	Materials	26,609	1,501	5.6	7.3	-8.3	-1.6
177	State Street Corp.	Diversified Financials	26,775	3,624	13.5	1.2	-2.9	-1.7
178	St. Jude Medical	Healthcare Equipment and Services	17,460	976	5.6	6.1	-7.4	-1.7
179	Wyndham Worldwide Corp.	Consumer Services	8,435	1,304	15.5	8.2	-9.3	-1.9
180	Robert Half International	Commercial and Professional Services	6,255	425	6.8	14.9	-14.6	-2.0
181	Time Warner	Media	51,702	7,910	15.3	5.8	-7.8	-2.4
182	The Procter & Gamble Co.	Household and Personal Products	216,041	9,108	4.2	-0.1	-2.6	-2.7
183	Regions Financial Corp.	Banks	12,533	879	7.0	1.8	-4.5	-2.8
184	Ingersoll-Rand	Capital Goods	14,433	1,625	11.3	2.9	-5.5	-2.8
185	Morgan Stanley	Diversified Financials	61,591	4,231	6.9	7.1	-9.4	-3.0
186	Capital One Financial Corp.	Diversified Financials	38,403	4,486	11.7	5.5	-8.2	-3.1
187	MetLife	Insurance	53,591	2,107	3.9	1.8	-4.9	-3.2
188	Verizon Communications	Telecommunication Services	188,063	5,134	2.7	0.6	-3.9	-3.4
189	KeyCorp.	Banks	11,018	813	7.4	3.8	-7.2	-3.6
190	Merck & Co.	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	147,555	11,889	8.1	8.4	-11.9	-4.5
191	CF Industries Holdings	Materials	9,512	2,491	26.2	6.0	-9.9	-4.5
192	EMC Corp.	Technology Hardware and Equipment	49,789	5,032	10.1	5.3	-9.4	-4.7
193	Corning	Technology Hardware and Equipment	21,625	5,711	26.4	7.2	-11.2	-4.8
194	Oracle Corp.	Software and Services	153,471	18,441	12.0	6.8	-10.9	-4.8
195	Agilent Technologies	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	13,888	567	4.1	1.3	-6.2	-4.9
196	Discover Financial Services	Diversified Financials	22,922	3,279	14.3	4.7	-9.3	-5.0
197	CA	Software and Services	11,901	1,087	9.1	-2.7	-2.4	-5.0
198	T. Rowe Price Group	Diversified Financials	17,951	1,403	7.8	0.4	-5.6	-5.3
199	Ameriprise Financial	Diversified Financials	18,529	3,318	17.9	6.2	-10.8	-5.3
200	Martin Marietta Materials	Materials	9,034	520	5.8	25.7	-24.8	-5.5
* Company has yet to report latest quarter. Source: Fortuna Advisors Analysis using data from the Capital IQ database. Financial Data from December 2013 to December 2015. Includes the 485 members of the current S&P 500 that were public for the full period. Market Capitalization as of: 12/31/2015. Companies Included here if $ Total Buyback / Market Capitalization is greater than 4% or if $ Total Buyback is greater than $1 billion.