| 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% | ||
| 151 | McDonald's Corp. | Consumer Services | 92,797 | 8,257 | 8.9 | 3.3 | 1.8 | 5.2 |
| 152 | Target Corp. | Retailing | 49,432 | 2,179 | 4.4 | 11.5 | -5.6 | 5.2 |
| 153 | 3M Co. | Capital Goods | 88,570 | 11,430 | 12.9 | 15.2 | -8.8 | 5.0 |
| 154 | Dun & Bradstreet Corp. | Commercial and Professional Services | 3,792 | 215 | 5.7 | 6.4 | -1.8 | 4.5 |
| 155 | AT&T | Telecommunication Services | 200,400 | 3,511 | 1.8 | 4.0 | 0.5 | 4.5 |
| 156 | Capital One Financial Corp. | Diversified Financials | 39,337 | 4,606 | 11.7 | 11.1 | -6.1 | 4.3 |
| 157 | LyondellBasell Industries | Materials | 38,835 | 5,979 | 15.4 | 16.6 | -10.5 | 4.3 |
| 158 | Biogen | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 68,625 | 3,885 | 5.7 | 21.5 | -14.2 | 4.3 |
| 159 | PPG Industries | Materials | 23,740 | 1,931 | 8.1 | 14.3 | -8.8 | 4.2 |
| 160 | Wyndham Worldwide Corp. | Consumer Services | 8,428 | 1,251 | 14.8 | 16.7 | -10.7 | 4.2 |
| 161 | Ecolab | Materials | 32,378 | 1,236 | 3.8 | 10.9 | -6.1 | 4.1 |
| 162 | Fifth Third Bancorp | Banks | 15,189 | 1,945 | 12.8 | 6.5 | -2.4 | 3.9 |
| 163 | Texas Instruments | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 50,827 | 5,679 | 11.2 | 15.1 | -9.7 | 3.9 |
| 164 | MetLife | Insurance | 52,661 | 2,107 | 4.0 | 6.9 | -3.0 | 3.7 |
| 165 | PulteGroup | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 6,657 | 733 | 11.0 | 10.7 | -6.3 | 3.7 |
| 166 | Deere & Co. | Capital Goods | 24,284 | 5,502 | 22.7 | 5.5 | -2.3 | 3.1 |
| 167 | Ingersoll-Rand | Capital Goods | 13,472 | 2,026 | 15.0 | 12.5 | -8.4 | 3.1 |
| 168 | Illinois Tool Works | Capital Goods | 30,133 | 5,955 | 19.8 | 11.7 | -7.8 | 2.9 |
| 169 | Unum Group | Insurance | 7,914 | 677 | 8.6 | 7.9 | -4.7 | 2.9 |
| 170 | JB Hunt Transport Services | Transportation | 8,300 | 435 | 5.2 | 4.2 | -1.4 | 2.8 |
| 171 | Prudential Financial | Insurance | 34,371 | 2,646 | 7.7 | 6.1 | -3.4 | 2.5 |
| 172 | Philip Morris International | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 122,897 | 5,329 | 4.3 | 1.6 | 0.9 | 2.5 |
| 173 | Lincoln National Corp. | Insurance | 11,910 | 1,250 | 10.5 | 14.2 | -10.3 | 2.4 |
| 174 | United Continental Holdings | Transportation | 20,040 | 1,022 | 5.1 | 32.4 | -22.8 | 2.3 |
| 175 | General Electric Co. | Capital Goods | 254,632 | 5,102 | 2.0 | 7.0 | -4.4 | 2.3 |
| 176 | TE Connectivity | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 24,099 | 1,601 | 6.6 | 12.3 | -9.0 | 2.2 |
| 177 | Ameriprise Financial | Diversified Financials | 19,449 | 3,248 | 16.7 | 17.9 | -13.5 | 2.0 |
| 178 | Regions Financial Corp. | Banks | 11,937 | 800 | 6.7 | 2.2 | -0.6 | 1.6 |
| 179 | L-3 Communications Holdings | Capital Goods | 8,396 | 1,884 | 22.4 | 12.9 | -10.1 | 1.5 |
| 180 | The Coca-Cola Co. | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 174,522 | 7,068 | 4.0 | 3.8 | -2.2 | 1.4 |
| 181 | United Parcel Service | Transportation | 88,445 | 5,695 | 6.4 | 8.9 | -6.9 | 1.4 |
| 182 | ACE | Insurance | 33,494 | 2,241 | 6.7 | 9.7 | -7.6 | 1.3 |
| 183 | BlackRock | Diversified Financials | 49,493 | 2,656 | 5.4 | 11.6 | -9.4 | 1.1 |
| 184 | Colgate-Palmolive Co. | Household and Personal Products | 57,122 | 3,132 | 5.5 | 7.3 | -5.9 | 0.9 |
| 185 | Amgen | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 104,881 | 1,822 | 1.7 | 22.9 | -18.1 | 0.7 |
| 186 | Motorola Solutions | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 12,084 | 5,904 | 48.9 | 6.9 | -5.9 | 0.5 |
| 187 | Varian Medical Systems | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 7,283 | 1,050 | 14.4 | 7.3 | -6.8 | 0.1 |
| 188 | Rockwell Automation | Capital Goods | 13,608 | 1,084 | 8.0 | 10.0 | -9.0 | 0.0 |
| 189 | Aflac | Insurance | 25,036 | 2,797 | 11.2 | 2.7 | -2.8 | -0.2 |
| 190 | Merck & Co. | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 139,114 | 10,904 | 7.8 | 11.4 | -10.5 | -0.3 |
| 191 | Omnicom Group | Media | 16,010 | 1,575 | 9.8 | 7.6 | -7.6 | -0.5 |
| 192 | Automatic Data Processing | Software and Services | 37,389 | 2,021 | 5.4 | 14.9 | -14.3 | -1.5 |
| 193 | Oracle Corp. | Software and Services | 154,038 | 17,853 | 11.6 | 10.3 | -10.7 | -1.5 |
| 194 | Comerica | Banks | 7,313 | 508 | 6.9 | 6.4 | -7.5 | -1.6 |
| 195 | The Dow Chemical Co. | Materials | 49,119 | 4,866 | 9.9 | 15.1 | -14.8 | -2.0 |
| 196 | Xilinx | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 10,967 | 1,034 | 9.4 | -0.7 | -1.8 | 2.5 |
| 197 | Corning | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 20,988 | 5,514 | 26.3 | 12.6 | -13.6 | -2.6 |
| 198 | Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide | Consumer Services | 11,327 | 2,043 | 18.0 | 11.5 | -12.7 | -2.6 |
| 199 | Legg Mason | Diversified Financials | 4,565 | 695 | 15.2 | 19.1 | -18.3 | -2.6 |
| 200 | Johnson & Johnson | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 258,496 | 11,006 | 4.3 | 6.8 | -9.0 | -2.8 |
| 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.. | ||||||||