Buyback Scorecard Soaring Buybacks, Sagging ReturnsThe S&P 500 as Stock Repurchasers Industry 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.

The Best and Worst Corporate Stock Buyback Programs
Best
	Company	Industry	Market Cap ($ Millions)	Total Buyback (S Millions)	$ Total Buyback as % Market Cap	Buyback Strategy	Buyback Effectiveness	Buyback ROI
1	Darden Restaurants	Consumer Services	8,751	502	5.7	25.9	23.7	55.8
2	Tesoro Corp.	Energy	11,970	693	5.8	42.3	8.1	53.8
3	Cigna Corp.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	34,767	1,962	7.9	40.5	6.1	49.2
4	O'Reilly Automotive	Retailing	24,851	1,962	7.9	40.5	6.1	49.2
5	The Kroger Co.	Food and Staples Retailing	35,112	2,167	6.2	40.8	4.4	47.0
6	HCA Holdings	Healthcare Equipment and Services	32,119	3,636	11.3	50.5	-3.3	45.6
7	Expedia	Retailing	16,703	754	4.5	48.1	-2.4	44.6
8	Sealed Air Corp.	Materials	9,650	881	9.1	36.9	5.5	44.4
9	Humana	Healthcare Equipment and Services	$6,530	1,475	5.6	43.2	0.9	44.4
10	Starbucks Corp.	Consumer Services	84,362	2,195	2.6	26.6	12.8	42.8
Worst
	Company	Industry	Market Cap ($ Millions)	Total Buyback (S Millions)	$ Total Buyback as % Market Cap	Buyback Strategy	Buyback Effectiveness	Buyback ROI
1	Michael Kors Holdings Ltd.	Consumer Durables and Apparel	8,170	1,249	15.3	-22.1	-46.6	-58.4
2	Applied Materials	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	17,637	1,325	7.5	4.4	-57.0	-55.1
3	Micron Technology	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	16,125	960	6.0	8.9	-52.0	-47.8
4	National Oilwell Varco	Energy	14,450	3,000	20.8	-19.9	-32.6	-46.0
5	NRG Energy	Utilities	4,910	392	8.0	-12.6	-37.6	-45.4
6	Keurig Green Mountain	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	8,033	2,086	26.0	-10.9	-36.8	-43.7
7	SanDisk Corp.	Technology Hardware and Equipment	11,107	2,703	24.3	-1.6	-39.9	-40.9
8	Fossil Group	Consumer Durables and Apparel	2,690	791	29.4	-25.5	-18.4	-39.2
9	Murphy Oil Corp.	Energy	4,181	875	20.9	-24.5	-19.0	-38.8
10	Apache Corp.	Energy	14,802	2,612	17.6	-25.1	-17.9	-38.5
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.