Buyback Scorecard
Stock Buyback
ROI Edges into the Black, Barely
The S&P 500
as Stock Repurchasers
Industry Comparisons
The table below ranks the 305 companies in the S&P 500 that bought back at least 4 percent or more than $1 billion of their shares from June 30, 2014 to June 30, 2016. 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.
The Best and Worst Corporate
Stock Buyback Programs
Best
| Company | Industry | Market Capitalization | $ Total Buyback | $ Total Buyback / Market Cap | Buyback Strategy | Buyback Effectiveness | Buyback ROI | |
| 1 | NVIDIA Corp. | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | $25,103 | $1,410 | 5.6% | 51.0% | 18.3% | 78.6% |
| 2 | Tyson Foods | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | $25,731 | $1,797 | 7.0% | 28.4% | 24.4% | 59.7% |
| 3 | Global Payments | Software and Services | $10,992 | $536 | 4.9% | 46.6% | 1.5% | 48.9% |
| 4 | Fortune Brands Home & Security | Capital Goods | $8,891 | $428 | 4.8% | 20.6% | 19.9% | 44.6% |
| 5 | Sysco Corp. | Food and Staples Retailing | $28,593 | $1,949 | 6.8% | 18.3% | 21.9% | 44.3% |
| 6 | Applied Materials | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | $26,107 | $3,046 | 11.7% | 6.1% | 33.6% | 41.8% |
| 7 | Avery Dennison Corp. | Materials | $6,666 | $501 | 7.5% | 25.6% | 10.8% | 39.1% |
| 8 | Martin Marietta Materials | Materials | $12,197 | $710 | 5.8% | 20.7% | 13.5% | 37.0% |
| 9 | Masco Corp. | Capital Goods | $10,295 | $743 | 7.2% | 31.2% | 2.5% | 34.4% |
| 10 | Northrop Grumman Corp. | Capital Goods | $40,111 | $5,231 | 13.0% | 34.5% | (0.2%) | 34.2% |
Worst
| Company | Industry | Market Capitalization | $ Total Buyback | $ Total Buyback / Market Cap | Buyback Strategy | Buyback Effectiveness | Buyback ROI | |
| 1 | Seagate Technology | Technology Hardware and Equipment | $7,271 | $2,177 | 29.9% | (29.4%) | (31.2%) | (51.5%) |
| 2 | Micron Technology | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | $14,270 | $1,032 | 7.2% | (35.4%) | (16.5%) | (46.1%) |
| 3 | H&R Block | Consumer Services | $5,072 | $2,065 | 40.7% | (11.4%) | (38.7%) | (45.7%) |
| 4 | Western Digital Corp. | Technology Hardware and Equipment | $13,301 | $1,030 | 7.7% | (28.1%) | (22.2%) | (44.1%) |
| 5 | CF Industries Holdings | Materials | $5,618 | $900 | 16.0% | (20.1%) | (24.2%) | (39.5%) |
| 6 | Chipotle Mexican Grill | Consumer Services | $11,761 | $1,199 | 10.2% | (10.4%) | (30.0%) | (37.3%) |
| 7 | The Gap | Retailing | $8,445 | $1,586 | 18.8% | (25.5%) | (15.6%) | (37.2%) |
| 8 | Macy's | Retailing | $10,365 | $3,110 | 30.0% | (19.4%) | (21.3%) | (36.6%) |
| 9 | Nordstrom | Retailing | $6,599 | $1,535 | 23.3% | (12.5%) | (25.7%) | (35.0%) |
| 10 | National Oilwell Varco | Energy | $12,688 | $3,000 | 23.6% | (31.8%) | (1.4%) | (32.8%) |
Top Manufacturers of EPS (*)
| Company | Industry | Market Capitalization | $ Total Buyback | $ Total Buyback / Market Cap | Buyback Strategy | Buyback Effectiveness | Buyback ROI | |
| 1 | LyondellBasell Industries N.V. | Materials | $31,757 | $9,059 | 28.5% | (3.9%) | (1.3%) | (5.1%) |
| 2 | Monsanto Co. | Materials | $45,250 | $10,004 | 22.1% | (6.2%) | 1.4% | (4.9%) |
| 3 | CBS Corp. | Media | $24,804 | $3,690 | 14.9% | (3.4%) | 7.7% | 4.0% |
| 4 | The Travelers Cos. | Insurance | $34,414 | $6,135 | 17.8% | 13.9% | (2.0%) | 11.6% |
| 5 | Ameriprise Financial | Diversified Financials | $14,898 | $3,381 | 22.7% | (4.9%) | (11.0%) | (15.3%) |
| 6 | Gilead Sciences | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | $111,101 | $22,702 | 20.4% | 7.7% | (18.3%) | (12.0%) |
| 7 | Discover Financial Services | Diversified Financials | $22,091 | $3,585 | 16.2% | (1.6%) | (1.6%) | (3.2%) |
| 8 | Varian Medical Systems | Healthcare Equipment and Services | $7,829 | $1,007 | 12.9% | 0.5% | (1.3%) | (0.9%) |
| 9 | The PNC Financial Services Group | Banks | $40,640 | $4,091 | 10.1% | 2.6% | (4.9%) | (2.4%) |
| 10 | Regions Financial Corp. | Banks | $10,780 | $1,225 | 11.4% | (4.6%) | 1.9% | (2.8%) |
| * Manufacturers of EPS considers S&P threshold Cos. with low (negative) Earnings Growth but high reduction in share count to generate positive EPS Growth. ** EPS calculation = Quarterly Reported Net Income / Actual Quarter's Reported Total Shares Outstanding. Source: Fortuna Advisors Analysis using data from the Capital IQ database. Financial Data from June 2014 to June 2016. Includes the 487 members of the current S&P 500 that were public for the full period. Market Capitalization as of: 6/30/2016. Cos. Included here if $ Total Buyback / Market Capitalization is greater than 4% | ||||||||
