| Buyback Scorecard The Risk in No-Risk Stock BuybacksBest & Worst CompaniesIndustry Comparisons |
The table below ranks the 299 companies in the S&P 500 that bought back at least 4 percent or more than $1 billion of their shares from December 31, 2013 to December 31, 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.
| How the S&P 500 Stack Up as Stock Repurchasers 1—50 | 51—100 | 101—150 | 151—200 | 201—250 | 251—299 | ||||||||
| Company | Industry | Market Capitalization | $ Total Buyback | $ Total Buyback / Market Cap | Buyback Strategy | Buyback Effectiveness | Buyback ROI | |
| Average | $48,969 | $3,699 | 9.2% | 20.8% | -3.9% | 16.3% | ||
| Median | $24,408 | $1,949 | 7.7% | 20.1% | -3.6% | 16.5% | ||
| 251 | Pentair | Capital Goods | 8,928 | 1,354 | 15.2 | -9.7 | -7.5 | -16.5 |
| 252 | Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 21,888 | 3,223 | 14.7 | 1.7 | -18.5 | -17.1 |
| 253 | United Technologies Corp. | Capital Goods | 85,216 | 10,740 | 12.6 | -3.6 | -14.3 | -17.4 |
| 254 | W.W. Grainger | Capital Goods | 12,720 | 1,925 | 15.1 | -9.5 | -8.9 | -17.5 |
| 255 | Eaton Corp. | Capital Goods | 24,084 | 1,332 | 5.5 | -10.1 | -8.6 | -17.8 |
| 256 | Discovery Communications | Media | 15,390 | 2,373 | 15.4 | -17.4 | -0.9 | -18.2 |
| 257 | Ralph Lauren Corp. | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 9,442 | 1,081 | 11.4 | -15.5 | -3.5 | -18.5 |
| 258 | McKesson Corp. | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 45,384 | 1,066 | 2.3 | 11.4 | -27.7 | -19.4 |
| 259 | Caterpillar | Capital Goods | 39,569 | 6,264 | 15.8 | -6.7 | -14.6 | -20.3 |
| 260 | Emerson Electric Co. | Capital Goods | 31,155 | 3,666 | 11.8 | -13.0 | -8.9 | -20.7 |
| 261 | Wal-Mart Stores | Food and Staples Retailing | 196,276 | 5,127 | 2.6 | -9.6 | -12.9 | -21.2 |
| 262 | Scripps Networks Interactive | Media | 7,098 | 1,487 | 21.0 | -14.2 | -8.5 | -21.5 |
| 263 | Affiliated Managers Group | Diversified Financials | 8,633 | 605 | 7.0 | -7.2 | -16.6 | -22.6 |
| 264 | Kohl's Corp. | Retailing | 9,041 | 1,724 | 19.1 | -5.5 | -18.7 | -23.2 |
| 265 | Owens-Illinois | Materials | 2,802 | 134 | 4.8 | -20.9 | -3.0 | -23.3 |
| 266 | Whole Foods Market | Food and Staples Retailing | 11,432 | 1,663 | 14.5 | -25.9 | 3.4 | -23.3 |
| 267 | Harley-Davidson | Automobiles and Components | 8,709 | 2,153 | 24.7 | -12.2 | -13.0 | -23.6 |
| 268 | The Mosaic Co. | Materials | 9,726 | 3,472 | 35.7 | -15.2 | -10.0 | -23.6 |
| 269 | Garmin | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 7,075 | 397 | 5.6 | -8.9 | -16.3 | -23.7 |
| 270 | Fluor Corp. | Capital Goods | 6,687 | 1,285 | 19.2 | -20.5 | -4.3 | -23.9 |
| 271 | United Rentals | Capital Goods | 6,734 | 1,402 | 20.8 | 3.9 | -27.2 | -24.4 |
| 272 | Franklin Resources | Diversified Financials | 22,147 | 1,736 | 7.8 | -13.5 | -13.0 | -24.8 |
| 273 | Western Digital Corp. | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 13,915 | 1,546 | 11.1 | -2.6 | -22.9 | -24.8 |
| 274 | Hess Corp. | Energy | 13,870 | 3,866 | 27.9 | -15.3 | -11.4 | -24.9 |
| 275 | Biogen | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 68,286 | 5,887 | 8.6 | 5.4 | -29.1 | -25.3 |
| 276 | Cummins | Capital Goods | 15,544 | 1,570 | 10.1 | -11.3 | -16.7 | -26.1 |
| 277 | Urban Outfitters | Retailing | 2,669 | 991 | 37.1 | -17.0 | -11.0 | -26.1 |
| 278 | QUALCOMM | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 75,132 | 16,843 | 22.4 | -10.9 | -18.5 | -27.3 |
| 279 | BorgWarner | Automobiles and Components | 9,690 | 517 | 5.3 | -9.2 | -20.2 | -27.5 |
| 280 | Flowserve Corp. | Capital Goods | 5,507 | 550 | 10.0 | -19.3 | -10.8 | -28.0 |
| 281 | The AES Corp. | Utilities | 6,439 | 790 | 12.3 | -14.2 | -19.8 | -31.2 |
| 282 | Macy's | Retailing | 10,997 | 3,902 | 35.5 | -3.4 | -29.0 | -31.4 |
| 283 | Host Hotels & Resorts | Real Estate | 11,530 | 677 | 5.9 | -1.6 | -30.3 | -31.4 |
| 284 | The Gap | Retailing | 9,927 | 2,254 | 22.7 | -15.5 | -19.5 | -32.0 |
| 285 | FMC Technologies | Energy | 6,614 | 434 | 6.6 | -21.1 | -13.9 | -32.0 |
| 286 | Viacom | Media | 16,466 | 3,356 | 20.4 | -23.1 | -12.9 | -33.0 |
| 287 | Marathon Oil Corp. | Energy | 8,527 | 1,000 | 11.7 | -29.5 | -7.0 | -34.4 |
| 288 | Teradata Corp. | Software and Services | 3,514 | 1,208 | 34.4 | -21.1 | -17.0 | -34.5 |
| 289 | Navient Corp. | Diversified Financials | 4,148 | 1,480 | 35.7 | -10.5 | -26.8 | -34.5 |
| 290 | Apache Corp. | Energy | 16,810 | 1,864 | 11.1 | -26.6 | -11.5 | -35.1 |
| 291 | Keurig Green Mountain | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 13,423 | 2,198 | 16.4 | -3.3 | -35.8 | -38.0 |
| 292 | Micron Technology | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 14,659 | 1,053 | 7.2 | -9.3 | -32.8 | -39.0 |
| 293 | National Oilwell Varco | Energy | 12,584 | 3,000 | 23.8 | -26.4 | -18.4 | -40.0 |
| 294 | Michael Kors Holdings | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 7,373 | 1,448 | 19.6 | -27.7 | -17.7 | -40.5 |
| 295 | Seagate Technology | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 10,963 | 2,358 | 21.5 | -8.9 | -34.8 | -40.6 |
| 296 | Quanta Services | Capital Goods | 3,235 | 1,700 | 52.5 | -14.4 | -32.9 | -42.6 |
| 297 | Murphy Oil Corp. | Energy | 3,862 | 625 | 16.2 | -32.5 | -18.1 | -44.8 |
| 298 | Mallinckrodt | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 8,653 | 384 | 4.4 | 18.9 | -61.6 | -54.3 |
| 299 | NRG Energy | Utilities | 3,698 | 476 | 12.9 | -31.2 | -59.1 | -71.9 |
| * Company has yet to report latest quarter. Source: Fortuna Advisors Analysis using data from the Capital IQ database. Financial Data from December 2013 to December 2015. Includes the 485 members of the current S&P 500 that were public for the full period. Market Capitalization as of: 12/31/2015. Companies Included here if $ Total Buyback / Market Capitalization is greater than 4% or if $ Total Buyback is greater than $1 billion. | ||||||||