| 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% | ||
| 51 | Intuitive Surgical | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 17,013 | 1,100 | 6.5 | 13.3 | 7.6 | 21.9 |
| 52 | Gilead Sciences | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 144,104 | 11,799 | 8.2 | 36.6 | -11.0 | 21.6 |
| 53 | Akamai Technologies | Software and Services | 12,334 | 519 | 4.2 | 23.7 | -1.9 | 21.3 |
| 54 | Adobe Systems | Software and Services | 41,011 | 1,500 | 3.7 | 30.3 | -7.1 | 21.0 |
| 55 | Accenture | Software and Services | 61,580 | 5,012 | 8.1 | 18.6 | 2.0 | 21.0 |
| 56 | VeriSign | Software and Services | 8,008 | 1,602 | 20.0 | 18.8 | 1.7 | 20.8 |
| 57 | Moody’s Corp. | Diversified Financials | 19,669 | 2,382 | 12.1 | 29.0 | -6.5 | 20.6 |
| 58 | The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. | Automobiles and Components | 7,901 | 318 | 4.0 | 26.3 | -4.6 | 20.5 |
| 59 | Brown-Forman Corp. | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 20,862 | 1,201 | 5.8 | 21.9 | -1.9 | 19.6 |
| 60 | The Clorox Co. | Household and Personal Products | 14,918 | 667 | 4.5 | 18.9 | 0.4 | 19.3 |
| 61 | The Sherwin-Williams Co. | Materials | 20,765 | 2,532 | 12.2 | 23.4 | -3.4 | 19.2 |
| 62 | Assurant | Insurance | 5,279 | 527 | 10.0 | 19.5 | -0.3 | 19.2 |
| 63 | Dollar General Corp. | Retailing | 21,345 | 2,010 | 9.4 | 18.2 | 0.6 | 19.0 |
| 64 | Verisk Analytics | Commercial and Professional Services | 12,453 | 897 | 7.2 | 8.7 | 9.3 | 18.9 |
| 65 | Fidelity National Information Services | Software and Services | 18,889 | 9461 | 5.0 | 23.3 | -3.8 | 18.5 |
| 66 | Marathon Petroleum Corp. | Energy | 24,840 | 3,356 | 13.5 | 23.5 | -4.4 | 18.0 |
| 67 | WestRock Co. | Materials | 13,469 | 575 | 4.3 | 4.9 | 12.3 | 17.8 |
| 68 | Stanley Black & Decker | Capital Goods | 14,861 | 668 | 4.5 | 12.1 | 4.6 | 17.3 |
| 69 | Ball Corp. | Materials | 8,473 | 672 | 7.9 | 23.9 | -5.4 | 17.3 |
| 70 | CarMax | Retailing | 12,156 | 1,427 | 11.7 | 13.2 | 3.6 | 17.2 |
| 71 | NVIDIA Corp. | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 13,286 | 1,303 | 9.8 | 22.8 | -4.6 | 17.1 |
| 72 | McGraw Hill Financial | Diversified Financials | 23,571 | 991 | 4.2 | 29.3 | -9.4 | 17.1 |
| 73 | Delta Air Lines | Transportation | 35,690 | 3,032 | 8.5 | 48.1 | -21.0 | 16.9 |
| 74 | MasterCard | Software and Services | 102,025 | 6,862 | 6.7 | 23.1 | -5.2 | 16.7 |
| 75 | American International Group | Insurance | 73,519 | 12,780 | 17.4 | 14.4 | 1.7 | 16.4 |
| 76 | XL Group | Insurance | 10,980 | 1,244 | 11.3 | 12.5 | 3.3 | 16.1 |
| 77 | Intercontinental Exchange | Diversified Financials | 25,964 | 1,337 | 5.1 | 14.3 | 1.4 | 16.0 |
| 78 | Tyson Foods | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 17,504 | 790 | 4.5 | 22.3 | -5.2 | 15.9 |
| 79 | Medtronic | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 94,627 | 3,880 | 4.1 | 19.2 | -2.9 | 15.8 |
| 80 | JPMorgan Chase & Co. | Banks | 225,442 | 9,456 | 4.2 | 13.5 | 2.0 | 15.7 |
| 81 | Express Scripts Holding Co. | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 54,707 | 12,496 | 22.8 | 16.1 | -0.5 | 15.5 |
| 82 | Abbott Laboratories | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 59,946 | 3,583 | 6.0 | 18.3 | -2.5 | 15.4 |
| 83 | CF Industries Holdings | Materials | 10,464 | 2,789 | 26.7 | 25.6 | -8.1 | 15.4 |
| 84 | Northern Trust Corp. | Diversified Financials | 15,871 | 948 | 6.0 | 15.4 | -0.2 | 15.2 |
| 85 | The TJX Cos. | Retailing | 48,164 | 3,420 | 7.1 | 16.1 | -1.0 | 14.9 |
| 86 | Republic Services | Commercial and Professional Services | 14,375 | 694 | 4.8 | 13.3 | 1.4 | 14.9 |
| 87 | Huntington Bancshares | Banks | 8,512 | 559 | 6.6 | 17.4 | -2.4 | 14.7 |
| 88 | Intuit | Software and Services | 24,611 | 2,697 | 11.0 | 24.0 | -7.7 | 14.5 |
| 89 | Waters Corp. | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 9,725 | 668 | 6.9 | 11.1 | 3.0 | 14.4 |
| 90 | Henry Schein | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 11,068 | 525 | 4.7 | 17.0 | -2.2 | 14.4 |
| 91 | Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 10,966 | 519 | 4.7 | 10.8 | 3.0 | 14.2 |
| 92 | Nordstrom | Retailing | 13,498 | 1,268 | 9.4 | 15.1 | -1.1 | 13.9 |
| 93 | Citrix Systems | Software and Services | 11,133 | 2,289 | 20.6 | 0.9 | 12.9 | 13.9 |
| 94 | Cardinal Health | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 25,262 | 1,659 | 6.6 | 30.6 | -12.8 | 13.9 |
| 95 | Cisco Systems | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 132,859 | 14,077 | 10.6 | 7.5 | 5.8 | 13.8 |
| 96 | The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. | Diversified Financials | 43,320 | 3,914 | 9.0 | 18.5 | -4.0 | 13.7 |
| 97 | Patterson Cos. | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 4,358 | 283 | 6.5 | 10.5 | 2.8 | 13.6 |
| 98 | General Mills | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 33,548 | 2,761 | 8.2 | 10.2 | 2.5 | 13.1 |
| 99 | The Estée Lauder Cos. | Household and Personal Products | 29,906 | 1,978 | 6.6 | 12.5 | 0.1 | 12.6 |
| 100 | The Goldman Sachs Group | Diversified Financials | 75,198 | 9,414 | 12.5 | 11.8 | 0.7 | 12.6 |
| 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. | ||||||||
