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 |
|
| | 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% |
| 1 | Darden Restaurants | Consumer Services | 8,751 | 502 | 5.7 | 25.9 | 23.7 | 55.8 |
| 2 | Tesoro Corp. | Energy | 11,970 | 693 | 5.8 | 42.3 | 8.1 | 53.8 |
| 3 | Cigna Corp. | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 34,767 | 2,315 | 6.7 | 36.4 | 9.5 | 49.4 |
| 4 | O'Reilly Automotive | Retailing | 24,851 | 1,962 | 7.9 | 40.5 | 6.1 | 49.2 |
| 5 | The Kroger Co. | Food and Staples Retailing | 35,112 | 2,167 | 6.2 | 40.8 | 4.4 | 47.0 |
| 6 | HCA Holdings | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 32,119 | 3,636 | 11.3 | 50.5 | -3.3 |
45.6 | | 7 | Expedia | Retailing | 16,703 | 754 | 4.5 | 48.1 | -2.4 | 44.6 |
| 8 | Sealed Air Corp. | Materials | 9,650 | 881 | 9.1 | 36.9 | 5.5 | 44.4 |
| 9 | Humana | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 26,530 | 1,475 | 5.6 | 43.2 | 0.9 | 44.4 |
| 10 | Starbucks Corp. | Consumer Services | 84,362 | 2,195 | 2.6 | 26.6 | 12.8 | 42.8 |
| 11 | Hasbro | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 9,010 | 551 | 6.1 | 32.5 | 7.1 | 41.9 |
| 12 | Aetna | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 38,150 | 1,992 | 5.2 | 35.7 | 4.1 | 41.2 |
| 13 | Walgreens Boots Alliance | Food and Staples Retailing | 90,769 | 1,694 | 1.9 | 36.7 | 2.3 | 39.9 |
| 14 | Eli Lilly & Co. | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 88,764 | 1,797 | 2.0 | 31.1 | 5.8 | 38.8 |
| 15 | UnitedHealth Group | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 110,623 | 5,960 | 5.4 | 31.4 | 5.2 | 38.2 |
| 16 | Altera Corp. | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 15,148 | 904 | 6.0 | 20.0 | 14.8 | 37.7 |
| 17 | NIKE | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 105,187 | 5,224 | 5.0 | 33.2 | 2.4 | 36.4 |
| 18 | Anthem | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 36,622 | 4,515 | 12.3 | 34.6 | 0.5 | 35.3 |
| 19 | Red Hat | Software and Services | 13,189 | 645 | 4.9 | 21.8 | 9.6 | 33.5 |
| 20 | Activision Blizzard | Software and Services | 22,519 | 5,830 | 25.9 | 31.1 | 1.7 | 33.3 |
| 21 | Celgene Corp. | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 85,513 | 6,256 | 7.3 | 33.1 | -0.1 | 32.9 |
| 22 | Fiserv | Software and Services | 20,317 | 2,080 | 10.2 | 33.7 | -0.7 | 32.8 |
| 23 | Dr Pepper Snapple Group | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 15,090 | 941 | 6.2 | 34.2 | -1.3 | 32.5 |
| 24 | AmerisourceBergen Corp. | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 20,537 | 2,613 | 12.7 | 35.7 | -2.5 | 32.2 |
| 25 | Equifax | Commercial and Professional Services | 11,491 | 498 | 4.3 | 28.8 | 2.6 | 32.0 |
| 26 | Leggett & Platt | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 5,644 | 363 | 6.4 | 27.5 | 3.3 | 31.7 |
| 27 | The Home Depot | Retailing | 148,301 | 14,143 | 9.5 | 25.0 | 5.1 | 31.4 |
| 28 | Valero Energy Corp. | Energy | 29,876 | 3,477 | 11.6 | 37.2 | -4.4 | 31.1 |
| 29 | The Chubb Corp. | Insurance | 27,847 | 2,497 | 9.0 | 21.5 | 7.8 | 31.0 |
| 30 | CVS Health Corp. | Food and Staples Retailing | 107,865 | 8,649 | 8.0 | 34.8 | -3.0 | 30.8 |
| 31 | Masco Corp. | Capital Goods | 8,661 | 365 | 4.2 | 21.8 | 6.9 | 30.2 |
| 32 | Northrop Grumman Corp. | Capital Goods | 31,098 | 6,242 | 20.1 | 37.5 | -5.4 | 30.2 |
| 33 | Nasdaq | Diversified Financials | 9,009 | 488 | 5.4 | 28.5 | -0.1 | 28.4 |
| 34 | Ross Stores | Retailing | 19,779 | 1,316 | 6.7 | 23.6 | 3.8 | 28.2 |
| 35 | The Walt Disney Co. | Media | 172,499 | 12,622 | 7.3 | 32.3 | -3.2 | 28.1 |
| 36 | Cintas Corp. | Commercial and Professional Services | 9,434 | 1,037 | 11.0 | 35.6 | -5.6 | 28.0 |
| 37 | AutoZone | Retailing | 22,192 | 2,371 | 10.7 | 28.7 | -0.6 | 27.9 |
| 38 | Mondelez International | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 67,465 | 4,703 | 7.0 | 19.8 | 6.5 | 27.6 |
| 39 | Apple | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 629,010 | 80,253 | 12.8 | 35.7 | -6.8 | 26.5 |
| 40 | The Hartford Financial Services Group | Insurance | 18,992 | 2,470 | 13.0 | 23.8 | 2.0 | 26.2 |
| 41 | Newell Rubbermaid | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 10,634 | 925 | 8.7 | 28.1 | -1.6 | 26.1 |
| 42 | Lowe's Cos. | Retailing | 63,767 | 8,200 | 12.96 | 25.0 | 0.4 | 25.5 |
| 43 | Tractor Supply Co. | Retailing | 11,452 | 589 | 5.1 | 21.3 | 3.3 | 25.2 |
| 44 | eBay | Software and Services | 29,773 | 4,768 | 16.0 | 14.9 | 9.0 | 25.2 |
| 45 | Southwest Airlines Co. | Transportation | 25,082 | 2,174 | 8.7 | 65.9 | -25.0 | 24.5 |
| 46 | CR Bard | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 13,824 | 1,237 | 8.9 | 29.2 | -3.7 | 24.4 |
| 47 | Visa | Software and Services | 169,476 | 7,116 | 4.2 | 25.2 | -0.8 | 24.3 |
| 48 | General Dynamics Corp. | Capital Goods | 44,520 | 6,111 | 13.7 | 33.4 | -6.9 | 24.2 |
| 49 | Avery Dennison Corp. | Materials | 5,173 | 430 | 8.3 | 19.8 | 2.6 | 22.9 |
| 50 | Lockheed Martin Corp. | Capital Goods | 64,377 | 4,493 | 7.0 | 33.8 | -8.2 | 22.7 |
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