| Buyback Scorecard Soaring Buybacks, Sagging ReturnsBest & Worst CompaniesIndustry Comparisons |
The table below ranks the 299 companies in the S&P 500 that bought back at least 4 percent of their shares from September 30, 2013, through September 30, 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 | Monsanto Co. | Materials | 39,925 | 7,917 | 19.8 | 0.8 | -13.8 | -13.1 |
| 252 | Pentair | Capital Goods | 9,190 | 1,527 | 16.6 | -1.2 | -12.4 | -13.4 |
| 253 | Twenty-First Century Fox | Media | 53,563 | 10,687 | 20.0 | -1.8 | -11.9 | -13.5 |
| 254 | KLA-Tencor Corp. | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 7,830 | 926 | 11.8 | 7.6 | -19.7 | -13.6 |
| 255 | Eaton Corp. | Capital Goods | 23,983 | 1,104 | 4.6 | -3.5 | -10.5 | -13.7 |
| 256 | Loews Corp. | Insurance | 13,122 | 1,239 | 9.4 | -9.3 | -5.0 | -13.8 |
| 257 | Exxon Mobil Corp. | Energy | 309,999 | 19,770 | 6.4 | -4.8 | -9.9 | -14.2 |
| 258 | The Gap | Retailing | 11,592 | 2,158 | 18.6 | -8.8 | -6.9 | -15.0 |
| 259 | Occidental Petroleum Corp. | Energy | 50,535 | 3,965 | 7.8 | -7.0 | -9.1 | -15.5 |
| 260 | CBS Corp. | Media | 19,241 | 5,478 | 28.5 | -3.6 | -12.7 | -15.9 |
| 261 | Airgas | Materials | 6,669 | 375 | 5.6 | 0.2 | -17.1 | -16.9 |
| 262 | Caterpillar | Capital Goods | 39,388 | 6,263 | 15.9 | -2.1 | -16.2 | -17.9 |
| 263 | Jacobs Engineering Group | Capital Goods | 4,634 | 501 | 10.8 | -17.1 | -1.2 | -18.0 |
| 264 | Franklin Resources | Diversified Financials | 22,871 | 1,492 | 6.5 | -4.0 | -15.1 | -18.4 |
| 265 | NetApp | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 8,729 | 2,660 | 30.5 | -12.4 | -7.5 | -18.9 |
| 266 | Navient Corp. | Diversified Financials | 4,204 | 1,342 | 31.9 | 0.0 | -19.0 | -19.0 |
| 267 | Dover Corp. | Capital Goods | 8,947 | 1,251 | 14.0 | -4.7 | -15.2 | -19.2 |
| 268 | Whole Foods Market | Food and Staples Retailing | 11,298 | 1,091 | 9.7 | -19.1 | -0.5 | -19.5 |
| 269 | Garmin | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 6,851 | 417 | 6.1 | 3.9 | -22.7 | -19.7 |
| 270 | Discovery Communications | Media | 14,854 | 2,334 | 15.7 | -14.7 | -6.4 | -20.1 |
| 271 | United Technologies Corp. | Capital Goods | 79,254 | 4,940 | 6.2 | -0.9 | -20.9 | -21.6 |
| 272 | QUALCOMM | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 84,421 | 15,795 | 18.7 | -2.6 | -19.6 | -21.7 |
| 273 | Chevron Corp. | Energy | 148,332 | 5,600 | 3.8 | -14.2 | -9.2 | -22.1 |
| 274 | Ralph Lauren Corp. | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 10,120 | 1,179 | 11.7 | -16.3 | -7.5 | -22.6 |
| 275 | Emerson Electric Co. | Capital Goods | 29,026 | 3,549 | 12.2 | -7.7 | -16.6 | -23.0 |
| 276 | Weyerhaeuser Co. | Real Estate | 14,058 | 564 | 4.0 | 5.4 | -27.8 | -23.9 |
| 277 | Owens-Illinois | Materials | 3,331 | 148 | 4.4 | -15.4 | -10.5 | -24.3 |
| 278 | Scripps Networks Interactive | Media | 6,322 | 1,487 | 23.5 | -10.6 | -15.8 | -24.7 |
| 279 | Coach | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 8,028 | 350 | 4.4 | -22.6 | -2.8 | -24.7 |
| 280 | Quanta Services | Capital Goods | 4,943 | 1,575 | 31.9 | -3.0 | -23.1 | -25.4 |
| 281 | Hess Corp. | Energy | 14,370 | 4,859 | 33.8 | -11.2 | -16.9 | -26.3 |
| 282 | Teradata Corp. | Software and Services | 4,101 | 1,287 | 31.4 | -26.1 | -2.5 | -28.0 |
| 283 | Norfolk Southern Corp. | Transportation | 23,026 | 1,378 | 6.0 | 6.6 | -33.8 | -29.4 |
| 284 | Fluor Corp. | Capital Goods | 6,138 | 1,334 | 21.7 | -13.9 | -18.6 | -29.9 |
| 285 | Flowserve Corp. | Capital Goods | 5,487 | 584 | 10.7 | -10.1 | -22.2 | -30.1 |
| 286 | Viacom | Media | 17,221 | 4,226 | 24.5 | -18.6 | -17.7 | -33.0 |
| 287 | Marathon Oil Corp. | Energy | 10,429 | 1,000 | 9.6 | -25.0 | -12.0 | -34.0 |
| 288 | FMC Technologies | Energy | 7,114 | 441 | 6.2 | -21.8 | -17.0 | -35.1 |
| 289 | United Rentals | Capital Goods | 5,727 | 1,296 | 22.6 | 11.8 | -42.9 | -36.1 |
| 290 | Apache Corp. | Energy | 14,802 | 2,612 | 17.6 | -25.1 | -17.9 | -38.5 |
| 291 | Murphy Oil Corp. | Energy | 4,181 | 875 | 20.9 | -24.5 | -19.0 | -38.8 |
| 292 | Fossil Group | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 2,690 | 791 | 29.4 | -25.5 | -18.4 | -39.2 |
| 293 | SanDisk Corp. | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 11,107 | 2,703 | 24.3 | -1.6 | -39.9 | -40.9 |
| 294 | Keurig Green Mountain | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 8,033 | 2,086 | 26.0 | -10.9 | -36.8 | -43.7 |
| 295 | NRG Energy | Utilities | 4,910 | 392 | 8.0 | -12.6 | -37.6 | -45.4 |
| 296 | National Oilwell Varco | Energy | 14,450 | 3,000 | 20.8 | -19.9 | -32.6 | -46.0 |
| 297 | Micron Technology | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 16,125 | 960 | 6.0 | 8.9 | -52.0 | -47.8 |
| 298 | Applied Materials | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 17,637 | 1,325 | 7.5 | 4.4 | -57.0 | -55.1 |
| 299 | Michael Kors Holdings | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 8,170 | 1,249 | 15.3 | -22.1 | -46.6 | -58.4 |
| Source: Fortuna Advisors Analysis using data from the Capital IQ database. Financial Data from September 2013 to September 2015. Includes the 486 members of the current S&P 500 that were public for the full period. Market Capitalization as of: 09/30/2015. Companies included here if $ Total Buyback / Market Capitalization is greater than 4% or if $ Total Buyback is greater than $1 billion. | ||||||||