| 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% | ||
| 151 | L-3 Communications Holdings | Capital Goods | 9,368 | 1,078 | 11.5 | 11.3 | -6.4 | 4.1 |
| 152 | Marsh & McLennan Cos. | Insurance | 28,925 | 2,313 | 8.0 | 11.4 | -6.7 | 3.9 |
| 153 | Dollar General Corp. | Retailing | 20,909 | 1,810 | 8.7 | 8.0 | -3.9 | 3.8 |
| 154 | Sealed Air Corp. | Materials | 8,805 | 986 | 11.2 | 24.9 | -17.1 | 3.5 |
| 155 | E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. | Materials | 58,369 | 1,343 | 2.3 | 7.7 | -4.2 | 3.2 |
| 156 | Xylem | Capital Goods | 6,547 | 313 | 4.8 | 7.6 | -4.1 | 3.2 |
| 157 | The ADT Corp. | Commercial and Professional Services | 5,440 | 554 | 10.2 | -7.4 | 11.4 | 3.2 |
| 158 | The Allstate Corp. | Insurance | 24,048 | 5,109 | 21.2 | 10.0 | -6.3 | 3.1 |
| 159 | Bank of America Corp. | Banks | 175,242 | 4,049 | 2.3 | 7.7 | -4.8 | 2.6 |
| 160 | Unum Group | Insurance | 8,104 | 724 | 8.9 | 4.6 | -2.0 | 2.5 |
| 161 | Colgate-Palmolive Co. | Household and Personal Products | 59,753 | 3,081 | 5.2 | 4.2 | -1.6 | 2.5 |
| 162 | U.S. Bancorp | Banks | 74,637 | 4,390 | 5.9 | 8.0 | -5.2 | 2.4 |
| 163 | CarMax | Retailing | 10,662 | 1,857 | 17.4 | 7.9 | -5.3 | 2.2 |
| 164 | Alliance Data Systems Corp. | Software and Services | 16,909 | 1,238 | 7.3 | 8.8 | -6.2 | 2.1 |
| 165 | HCA Holdings | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 27,571 | 4,147 | 15.0 | 22.9 | -17.0 | 2.0 |
| 166 | V.F. Corp. | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 26,538 | 1,464 | 5.5 | 11.4 | -8.6 | 1.8 |
| 167 | Dun & Bradstreet Corp. | Commercial and Professional Services | 3,755 | 153 | 4.1 | -0.1 | 1.7 | 1.6 |
| 168 | Johnson & Johnson | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 284,220 | 12,414 | 4.4 | 7.5 | -5.5 | 1.5 |
| 169 | Prudential Financial | Insurance | 36,553 | 2,664 | 7.3 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 1.3 |
| 170 | Citigroup | Banks | 154,163 | 7,620 | 4.9 | 2.6 | -1.4 | 1.1 |
| 171 | Amgen | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 122,450 | 2,005 | 1.6 | 19.8 | -15.9 | 0.8 |
| 172 | Fifth Third Bancorp | Banks | 15,966 | 1,504 | 9.4 | 3.1 | -2.9 | 0.0 |
| 173 | GameStop Corp. | Retailing | 2,935 | 482 | 16.4 | -10.3 | 10.6 | -0.8 |
| 174 | Akamai Technologies | Software and Services | 9,365 | 571 | 6.1 | 14.1 | -13.1 | -0.9 |
| 175 | Lincoln National Corp. | Insurance | 12,438 | 1,350 | 10.9 | 6.0 | -6.9 | -1.4 |
| 176 | PPG Industries | Materials | 26,609 | 1,501 | 5.6 | 7.3 | -8.3 | -1.6 |
| 177 | State Street Corp. | Diversified Financials | 26,775 | 3,624 | 13.5 | 1.2 | -2.9 | -1.7 |
| 178 | St. Jude Medical | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 17,460 | 976 | 5.6 | 6.1 | -7.4 | -1.7 |
| 179 | Wyndham Worldwide Corp. | Consumer Services | 8,435 | 1,304 | 15.5 | 8.2 | -9.3 | -1.9 |
| 180 | Robert Half International | Commercial and Professional Services | 6,255 | 425 | 6.8 | 14.9 | -14.6 | -2.0 |
| 181 | Time Warner | Media | 51,702 | 7,910 | 15.3 | 5.8 | -7.8 | -2.4 |
| 182 | The Procter & Gamble Co. | Household and Personal Products | 216,041 | 9,108 | 4.2 | -0.1 | -2.6 | -2.7 |
| 183 | Regions Financial Corp. | Banks | 12,533 | 879 | 7.0 | 1.8 | -4.5 | -2.8 |
| 184 | Ingersoll-Rand | Capital Goods | 14,433 | 1,625 | 11.3 | 2.9 | -5.5 | -2.8 |
| 185 | Morgan Stanley | Diversified Financials | 61,591 | 4,231 | 6.9 | 7.1 | -9.4 | -3.0 |
| 186 | Capital One Financial Corp. | Diversified Financials | 38,403 | 4,486 | 11.7 | 5.5 | -8.2 | -3.1 |
| 187 | MetLife | Insurance | 53,591 | 2,107 | 3.9 | 1.8 | -4.9 | -3.2 |
| 188 | Verizon Communications | Telecommunication Services | 188,063 | 5,134 | 2.7 | 0.6 | -3.9 | -3.4 |
| 189 | KeyCorp. | Banks | 11,018 | 813 | 7.4 | 3.8 | -7.2 | -3.6 |
| 190 | Merck & Co. | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 147,555 | 11,889 | 8.1 | 8.4 | -11.9 | -4.5 |
| 191 | CF Industries Holdings | Materials | 9,512 | 2,491 | 26.2 | 6.0 | -9.9 | -4.5 |
| 192 | EMC Corp. | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 49,789 | 5,032 | 10.1 | 5.3 | -9.4 | -4.7 |
| 193 | Corning | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 21,625 | 5,711 | 26.4 | 7.2 | -11.2 | -4.8 |
| 194 | Oracle Corp. | Software and Services | 153,471 | 18,441 | 12.0 | 6.8 | -10.9 | -4.8 |
| 195 | Agilent Technologies | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 13,888 | 567 | 4.1 | 1.3 | -6.2 | -4.9 |
| 196 | Discover Financial Services | Diversified Financials | 22,922 | 3,279 | 14.3 | 4.7 | -9.3 | -5.0 |
| 197 | CA | Software and Services | 11,901 | 1,087 | 9.1 | -2.7 | -2.4 | -5.0 |
| 198 | T. Rowe Price Group | Diversified Financials | 17,951 | 1,403 | 7.8 | 0.4 | -5.6 | -5.3 |
| 199 | Ameriprise Financial | Diversified Financials | 18,529 | 3,318 | 17.9 | 6.2 | -10.8 | -5.3 |
| 200 | Martin Marietta Materials | Materials | 9,034 | 520 | 5.8 | 25.7 | -24.8 | -5.5 |
* 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. | ||||||||
