| 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% | ||
| 101 | The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. | Diversified Financials | 45,052 | 4,024 | 8.9 | 15.6 | -4.0 | 10.9 |
| 102 | Xilinx | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 12,070 | 1,037 | 8.6 | 5.3 | 5.1 | 10.7 |
| 103 | Nielsen Holdings | Commercial and Professional Services | 16,965 | 1,133 | 6.7 | 9.6 | 0.7 | 10.4 |
| 104 | Comcast Corp. | Media | 138,023 | 11,001 | 8.0 | 13.7 | -3.1 | 10.1 |
| 105 | AutoNation | Retailing | 6,600 | 725 | 11.0 | 11.8 | -1.9 | 9.7 |
| 106 | Chubb | Insurance | 37,881 | 2,187 | 5.8 | 10.1 | -1.0 | 9.0 |
| 107 | Northern Trust Corp. | Diversified Financials | 16,669 | 978 | 5.9 | 14.3 | -4.7 | 9.0 |
| 108 | Intel Corp. | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 162,570 | 14,567 | 9.0 | 21.9 | -10.8 | 8.8 |
| 109 | The Western Union Co. | Software and Services | 9,050 | 1,009 | 11.2 | 7.0 | 1.5 | 8.6 |
| 110 | Ecolab | Materials | 33,777 | 1,184 | 3.5 | 7.6 | 0.9 | 8.6 |
| 111 | Intuit | Software and Services | 25,476 | 3,167 | 12.4 | 17.2 | -7.4 | 8.5 |
| 112 | Ametek | Capital Goods | 12,748 | 681 | 5.3 | 7.3 | 1.1 | 8.5 |
| 113 | The Boeing Co. | Capital Goods | 96,873 | 12,752 | 13.2 | 7.8 | 0.6 | 8.4 |
| 114 | Automatic Data Processing | Software and Services | 39,073 | 2,372 | 6.1 | 15.8 | -6.6 | 8.2 |
| 115 | Autodesk | Software and Services | 13,729 | 831 | 6.1 | 15.1 | -6.0 | 8.2 |
| 116 | Torchmark Corp. | Insurance | 7,050 | 672 | 9.5 | 9.4 | -1.1 | 8.2 |
| 117 | Moody's Corp. | Diversified Financials | 19,837 | 2,430 | 12.2 | 18.5 | -8.9 | 8.0 |
| 118 | Express Scripts Holding Co. | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 59,113 | 9,993 | 16.9 | 14.5 | -5.8 | 7.9 |
| 119 | Abbott Laboratories | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 66,993 | 4,432 | 6.6 | 11.8 | -3.6 | 7.7 |
| 120 | SunTrust Banks | Banks | 21,832 | 1,137 | 5.2 | 12.0 | -3.9 | 7.7 |
| 121 | Rockwell Collins | Capital Goods | 12,120 | 615 | 5.1 | 13.4 | -5.0 | 7.6 |
| 122 | Philip Morris International | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 136,199 | 3,881 | 2.8 | 4.5 | 2.8 | 7.5 |
| 123 | McGraw Hill Financial | Diversified Financials | 26,646 | 1,336 | 5.0 | 16.5 | -7.9 | 7.4 |
| 124 | 3M Co. | Capital Goods | 92,751 | 10,890 | 11.7 | 12.6 | -4.9 | 7.0 |
| 125 | The Coca-Cola Co. | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 186,832 | 7,726 | 4.1 | 7.0 | -0.1 | 6.9 |
| 126 | Cameron International Corp. | Energy | 12,078 | 1,987 | 16.5 | 7.1 | -0.2 | 6.9 |
| 127 | Honeywell International | Capital Goods | 79,821 | 2,808 | 3.5 | 10.5 | -3.3 | 6.8 |
| 128 | TE Connectivity | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 24,959 | 2,640 | 10.6 | 12.9 | -5.3 | 6.8 |
| 129 | Lam Research Corp. | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 12,580 | 777 | 6.2 | 20.7 | -11.6 | 6.7 |
| 130 | The PNC Financial Services Group | Banks | 48,399 | 3,328 | 6.9 | 13.8 | -6.3 | 6.6 |
| 131 | Amphenol Corp. | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 16,100 | 788 | 4.9 | 14.7 | -7.1 | 6.6 |
| 132 | Gilead Sciences | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 145,833 | 14,451 | 9.9 | 22.8 | -13.2 | 6.6 |
| 133 | The Dow Chemical Co. | Materials | 59,645 | 5,359 | 9.0 | 15.6 | -7.9 | 6.4 |
| 134 | Wells Fargo & Co. | Banks | 277,661 | 18,111 | 6.5 | 15.2 | -7.7 | 6.4 |
| 135 | Pfizer | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 199,281 | 9,837 | 4.9 | 7.5 | -1.1 | 6.3 |
| 136 | FedEx Corp. | Transportation | 41,064 | 5,993 | 14.6 | 8.6 | -2.1 | 6.3 |
| 137 | Patterson Cos. | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 4,380 | 302 | 6.9 | 7.2 | -1.5 | 5.6 |
| 138 | LyondellBasell Industries N.V. | Materials | 39,057 | 6,501 | 16.6 | 13.0 | -6.6 | 5.6 |
| 139 | BlackRock | Diversified Financials | 56,546 | 2,675 | 4.7 | 9.3 | -3.6 | 5.4 |
| 140 | Marriott International | Consumer Services | 17,218 | 3,427 | 19.9 | 27.6 | -17.4 | 5.4 |
| 141 | AT&T | Telecommunication Services | 211,690 | 1,886 | 0.9 | 3.6 | 1.6 | 5.4 |
| 142 | The Goldman Sachs Group | Diversified Financials | 80,419 | 9,604 | 11.9 | 7.5 | -2.1 | 5.3 |
| 143 | United Continental Holdings | Transportation | 21,362 | 1,545 | 7.2 | 28.4 | -18.3 | 4.9 |
| 144 | United Parcel Service | Transportation | 85,685 | 5,397 | 6.3 | 4.7 | 0.0 | 4.6 |
| 145 | Aon | Insurance | 25,258 | 3,930 | 15.6 | 9.7 | -4.6 | 4.6 |
| 146 | Omnicom Group | Media | 18,329 | 1,791 | 9.8 | 6.1 | -1.4 | 4.6 |
| 147 | Textron | Capital Goods | 11,497 | 559 | 4.9 | 16.3 | -10.2 | 4.4 |
| 148 | Illinois Tool Works | Capital Goods | 33,688 | 4,883 | 14.5 | 9.6 | -4.8 | 4.4 |
| 149 | CH Robinson Worldwide | Transportation | 8,915 | 418 | 4.7 | 9.5 | -4.8 | 4.3 |
| 150 | Aflac | Insurance | 25,562 | 2,525 | 9.9 | -0.2 | 4.4 | 4.2 |
| * 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. | ||||||||