Buyback Scorecard
Stock Buyback
ROI Edges into the Black, Barely
Best & Worst Companies
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.
| 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 | $45,780 | $3,582 | 10.6% | 5.1% | -3.3% | 1.7% | ||
| Median | $20,113 | $1,700 | 7.7% | 5.4% | -2.2% | 1.8% | ||
| 301 | CF Industries Holdings | Materials | 5,618 | 900 | 16.0 | -20.1 | -24.2 | -39.5 |
| 302 | Western Digital Corp. | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 13,301 | 1,030 | 7.7 | -28.1 | -22.2 | -44.1 |
| 303 | H&R Block | Consumer Services | 5,072 | 2,065 | 40.7 | -11.4 | -38.7 | -45.7 |
| 304 | Micron Technology | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 14,270 | 1,032 | 7.2 | -35.4 | -16.5 | -46.1 |
| 305 | Seagate Technology | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 7,271 | 2,177 | 29.9 | -29.4 | -31.2 | -51.5 |
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. Companies included here if $ Total Buyback / Market Capitalization is greater than 4% or if $ Total Buyback is greater than $1 billion. | ||||||||
