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% | ||
| 51 | CR Bard | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 14,840 | 1,070 | 7.2 | 17.4 | -2.9 | 14.0 |
| 52 | The Estée Lauder Cos. | Household and Personal Products | 34,760 | 1,753 | 5.0 | 14.6 | -0.9 | 13.6 |
| 53 | Cintas Corp. | Commercial and Professional Services | 9,711 | 1,261 | 13.0 | 22.7 | -7.8 | 13.1 |
| 54 | Verisk Analytics | Commercial and Professional Services | 13,429 | 827 | 6.2 | 7.4 | 5.3 | 13.1 |
| 55 | Tractor Supply Co. | Retailing | 12,060 | 613 | 5.1 | 11.0 | 1.4 | 12.5 |
| 56 | Church & Dwight Co. | Household and Personal Products | 11,823 | 782 | 6.6 | 16.7 | -3.7 | 12.4 |
| 57 | Foot Locker | Retailing | 8,778 | 654 | 7.5 | 27.1 | -11.6 | 12.3 |
| 58 | Newell Brands | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 11,873 | 501 | 4.2 | 14.6 | -2.1 | 12.3 |
| 59 | Red Hat | Software and Services | 13,607 | 798 | 5.9 | 10.6 | 1.4 | 12.2 |
| 60 | Nielsen Holdings | Commercial and Professional Services | 19,057 | 1,200 | 6.3 | 6.4 | 5.2 | 12.0 |
| 61 | Medtronic | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 105,078 | 4,750 | 4.5 | 15.9 | -4.3 | 10.9 |
| 62 | Eli Lilly and Co. | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 75,990 | 1,795 | 2.4 | 19.8 | -7.5 | 10.8 |
| 63 | The Travelers Cos. | Insurance | 34,427 | 6,461 | 18.8 | 16.6 | -5.0 | 10.7 |
| 64 | General Mills | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 37,655 | 2,106 | 5.6 | 11.8 | -1.0 | 10.7 |
| 65 | The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. | Automobiles and Components | 8,813 | 434 | 4.9 | 9.8 | 0.6 | 10.4 |
| 66 | The Interpublic Group of Cos. | Media | 9,229 | 569 | 6.2 | 14.9 | -4.3 | 10.0 |
| 67 | Philip Morris International | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 152,193 | 2,640 | 1.7 | 11.7 | -1.6 | 9.9 |
| 68 | The Sherwin-Williams Co. | Materials | 26,247 | 2,268 | 8.6 | 17.7 | -6.7 | 9.8 |
| 69 | Xilinx | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 12,120 | 1,106 | 9.1 | -0.2 | 9.6 | 9.3 |
| 70 | Dollar General Corp. | Retailing | 24,522 | 1,531 | 6.2 | 14.7 | -4.9 | 9.1 |
| 71 | Walgreens Boots Alliance | Food and Staples Retailing | 90,874 | 2,641 | 2.9 | 14.8 | -5.0 | 9.1 |
| 72 | Delta Air Lines | Transportation | 37,777 | 3,950 | 10.5 | 21.6 | -10.4 | 9.0 |
| 73 | Verizon Communications | Telecommunication Services | 220,646 | 5,134 | 2.3 | 7.7 | 1.0 | 8.8 |
| 74 | Motorola Solutions | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 13,224 | 5,730 | 43.3 | 3.9 | 4.5 | 8.6 |
| 75 | Leggett & Platt | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 6,528 | 377 | 5.8 | 22.0 | -11.2 | 8.4 |
| 76 | Chubb | Insurance | 55,263 | 1,852 | 3.4 | 11.6 | -3.1 | 8.1 |
| 77 | Citrix Systems | Software and Services | 12,100 | 2,425 | 20.0 | 9.5 | -1.3 | 8.1 |
| 78 | The Coca-Cola Co. | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 200,811 | 7,590 | 3.8 | 9.5 | -1.3 | 8.1 |
| 79 | Honeywell International | Capital Goods | 85,308 | 3,644 | 4.3 | 8.6 | -0.7 | 7.8 |
| 80 | Mondelez International | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 62,472 | 6,041 | 9.7 | 10.9 | -3.0 | 7.6 |
| 81 | Pepsico | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 149,753 | 9,382 | 6.3 | 13.5 | -5.4 | 7.3 |
| 82 | Waters Corp. | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 10,719 | 675 | 6.3 | 7.3 | -0.2 | 7.0 |
| 83 | Anthem | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 36,325 | 3,252 | 9.0 | 23.6 | -13.6 | 6.8 |
| 84 | Texas Instruments | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 57,722 | 5,482 | 9.5 | 12.6 | -5.3 | 6.6 |
| 85 | Omnicom Group | Media | 19,941 | 1,976 | 9.9 | 4.0 | 2.5 | 6.5 |
| 86 | Cardinal Health | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 26,989 | 1,620 | 6.0 | 10.1 | -3.2 | 6.5 |
| 87 | CVS Health Corp. | Food and Staples Retailing | 114,207 | 9,067 | 7.9 | 19.0 | -10.6 | 6.4 |
| 88 | Juniper Networks | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 9,760 | 2,594 | 26.6 | -0.9 | 7.3 | 6.4 |
| 89 | The Hartford Financial Services Group | Insurance | 18,279 | 2,745 | 15.0 | 11.9 | -5.1 | 6.2 |
| 90 | Intuit | Software and Services | 26,712 | 3,144 | 11.8 | 13.7 | -6.9 | 5.9 |
| 91 | Ball Corp. | Materials | 10,079 | 428 | 4.2 | 14.3 | -7.6 | 5.6 |
| 92 | CH Robinson Worldwide | Transportation | 10,633 | 458 | 4.3 | 14.9 | -8.3 | 5.4 |
| 93 | Duke Energy Corp. | Utilities | 55,572 | 1,500 | 2.7 | 8.8 | -3.6 | 4.9 |
| 94 | Applied Materials | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 23,949 | 2,850 | 11.9 | 1.6 | 3.2 | 4.9 |
| 95 | Phillips 66 | Energy | 45,566 | 3,545 | 7.8 | 6.1 | -1.2 | 4.8 |
| 96 | 3M Co. | Capital Goods | 100,946 | 10,409 | 10.3 | 10.3 | -5.3 | 4.5 |
| 97 | Thermo Fisher Scientific | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 56,107 | 1,500 | 2.7 | 6.7 | -2.1 | 4.4 |
| 98 | Marsh & McLennan Cos. | Insurance | 31,685 | 2,401 | 7.6 | 10.5 | -5.7 | 4.3 |
| 99 | Rockwell Collins | Capital Goods | 12,092 | 668 | 5.5 | 6.6 | -2.4 | 4.0 |
| 100 | Johnson & Johnson | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 298,452 | 14,029 | 4.7 | 8.7 | -4.4 | 3.9 |
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 Market Capitalization as of: 3/31/2016. Companies Included here if $ Total Buyback / Market Capitalization is greater than | ||||||||
