Buyback Scorecard Have Stock Buybacks Lost Their Credibility?Best & Worst CompaniesIndustry ComparisonsThe 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 March 31, 2014 to March 31, 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.

 How the S&P 500 Stack Up
as Stock Repurchasers 1—50 | 51—100 | 101—150 | 151—200 | 201—250 | 251—300 | 301—305
  Company Industry Market
Capitalization 		$ Total
Buyback 		$ Total
Buyback
/ Market Cap 		Buyback
Strategy 		Buyback
Effectiveness 		Buyback ROI
  Average   $45,750 $3,542 10.2% 3.0% -8.6% -5.3%
  Median   $20,394 $1,726 7.8% 3.6% -7.4% -5.3%
101 MasterCard Software and Services 104,965 6,592 6.3 7.1 -3.1 3.8
102 XL Group Insurance 10,747 1,450 13.5 11.3 -7.0 3.5
103 Aon Insurance 28,210 4,015 14.2 7.4 -3.7 3.4
104 CA Software and Services 12,832 922 7.2 -2.8 6.4 3.3
105 General Dynamics Corp. Capital Goods 40,877 6,211 15.2 15.5 -10.9 2.9
106 General Electric Co. Capital Goods 295,174 8,104 2.7 10.6 -7.0 2.9
107 The Procter & Gamble Co. Household and Personal Products 222,613 7,607 3.4 4.4 -1.8 2.6
108 Automatic Data Processing Software and Services 41,038 2,648 6.5 13.7 -9.8 2.5
109 PerkinElmer Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences 5,450 289 5.3 5.0 -2.4 2.5
110 Comcast Corp. Media 149,182 11,500 7.7 6.8 -4.1 2.4
111 Illinois Tool Works Capital Goods 36,966 3,923 10.6 9.3 -6.4 2.4
112 Brown-Forman Corp. Food, Beverage and Tobacco 20,394 1,224 6.0 10.0 -7.4 1.9
113 Expeditors International of Washington Transportation 8,911 1,024 11.5 7.3 -5.2 1.7
114 Colgate-Palmolive Co. Household and Personal Products 63,028 2,857 4.5 5.1 -3.3 1.5
115 HCA Holdings Healthcare Equipment and Services 30,890 4,768 15.4 18.5 -14.3 1.5
116 Amphenol Corp. Technology Hardware and Equipment 17,811 716 4.0 9.0 -6.9 1.4
117 The Macerich Co. Real Estate 11,819 800 6.8 21.8 -16.9 1.3
118 L-3 Communications Holdings Capital Goods 9,186 1,196 13.0 4.4 -3.0 1.2
119 The Western Union Co. Software and Services 9,560 1,057 11.1 8.4 -6.8 1.1
120 Cisco Systems Technology Hardware and Equipment 143,264 9,982 7.0 11.3 -9.4 0.8
121 Lam Research Corp. Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment 13,125 745 5.7 18.3 -14.9 0.7
122 Wal-Mart Stores Food and Staples Retailing 215,356 7,236 3.4 -4.1 4.5 0.2
123 Aflac Insurance 26,458 2,716 10.3 -0.8 0.9 0.1
124 Analog Devices Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment 18,350 817 4.5 5.9 -5.5 0.0
125 Stanley Black & Decker Capital Goods 15,771 1,013 6.4 12.5 -11.1 -0.1
126 FLIR Systems Technology Hardware and Equipment 4,533 261 5.8 -2.0 1.9 -0.1
127 The Allstate Corp. Insurance 25,486 4,450 17.5 10.3 -9.7 -0.4
128 eBay Software and Services 27,263 4,340 15.9 2.3 -2.9 -0.7
129 Alphabet Software and Services 518,917 3,878 0.7 13.4 -12.4 -0.7
130 The Dow Chemical Co. Materials 56,816 4,109 7.2 4.3 -4.8 -0.8
131 The Walt Disney Co. Media 162,031 13,759 8.5 13.0 -12.3 -1.0
132 Intel Corp. Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment 152,821 14,851 9.7 14.3 -13.4 -1.0
133 United Parcel Service Transportation 93,204 5,367 5.8 2.7 -3.6 -1.0
134 JPMorgan Chase & Co. Banks 216,923 11,686 5.4 3.2 -4.4 -1.3
135 Target Corp. Retailing 49,367 4,345 8.8 16.4 -15.7 -1.9
136 Torchmark Corp. Insurance 6,567 632 9.6 2.8 -5.2 -2.6
137 The Priceline Group Retailing 63,954 4,002 6.3 -1.5 -1.4 -2.9
138 JB Hunt Transport Services Transportation 9,500 536 5.6 2.4 -5.4 -3.1
139 Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences 183,527 13,640 7.4 1.3 -4.4 -3.2
140 Ecolab Materials 32,746 1,331 4.1 1.8 -5.2 -3.4
141 Celgene Corp. Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences 78,237 6,084 7.8 14.0 -15.8 -4.0
142 BlackRock Diversified Financials 56,397 2,662 4.7 4.4 -8.2 -4.2
143 The PNC Financial Services Group Banks 42,378 3,838 9.1 4.5 -8.5 -4.4
144 U.S. Bancorp Banks 70,461 4,525 6.4 0.8 -5.4 -4.6
145 Wells Fargo & Co. Banks 244,568 19,115 7.8 5.4 -9.6 -4.7
146 Time Warner Media 57,326 7,630 13.3 6.7 -10.8 -4.8
147 S&P Global Diversified Financials 26,277 1,398 5.3 8.6 -12.4 -4.9
148 Autodesk Software and Services 13,090 829 6.3 0.3 -5.3 -5.0
149 AmerisourceBergen Corp. Healthcare Equipment and Services 19,747 2,798 14.2 15.9 -18.0 -5.0
150 Sealed Air Corp. Materials 9,409 1,038 11.0 17.3 -19.1 -5.0
Source: Fortuna Advisors Analysis using data from the Capital IQ database.

Financial Data from March 2014 to March 2016. Includes the 486 members of the
current S&P 500 that were public for the full period.

Market Capitalization as of: 3/31/2016.

Companies Included here if $ Total Buyback / Market Capitalization is greater than
4% or if $ Total Buyback is greater than $1 billion.