The table below ranks the 284 companies in the S&P 500 that bought back at least 4 percent of their shares from September 30, 2012, through September 30, 2014. 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—284 |
|
| | Average | | $46,507 | $3,389 | 8.8% | 25.9% | -2.3% | 22.5% |
| | Median | | $21,933 | $1,624 | 7.4% | 25.3% | -2.5% | 21.8% |
| 1 | Southwest Airlines Co. | Transportation | 23,137 | 1,370 | 5.9 | 84.7 | 8.0 | 99.5 |
| 2 | Keurig Green Mountain | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 21,136 | 1,241 | 5.9 | 130.7 | -15.9 | 94.1 |
| 3 | Gilead Sciences | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 160,917 | 4,131 | 2.6 | 84.8 | -3.1 | 79.0 |
| 4 | United Rentals | Capital Goods | 10,655 | 517 | 4.9 | 84.3 | -3.0 | 78.8 |
| 5 | LyondellBasell Industries | Materials | 55,670 | 3,449 | 6.2 | 61.8 | 1.5 | 64.2 |
| 6 | SanDisk Corp. | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 21,963 | 2,466 | 11.2 | 55.6 | 5.4 |
64.1 | | 7 | Western Digital Corp. | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 22,735 | 1,663 | 7.3 | 62.5 | 0.6 | 63.6 |
| 8 | Hewlett-Packard Co. | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 66,197 | 4,260 | 6.4 | 42.8 | 11.2 | 58.8 |
| 9 | Marriott International | Consumer Services | 20,311 | 2,049 | 10.1 | 35.5 | 12.1 | 51.9 |
| 10 | McKesson Corp. | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 45,085 | 1,396 | 3.1 | 47.5 | 2.7 | 51.5 |
| 11 | Apple | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 603,278 | 67,860 | 11.2 | 6.0 | 41.1 | 49.5 |
| 12 | The Kroger Co. | Food and Staples Retailing | 25,537 | 1,916 | 7.5 | 52.5 | -2.0 | 49.5 |
| 13 | Halliburton Co. | Energy | 54,868 | 5,189 | 9.5 | 45.3 | 2.8 | 49.4 |
| 14 | Lam Research Corp. | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 12,134 | 1,154 | 9.5 | 44.3 | 3.3 | 49.0 |
| 15 | Anthem | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 32,586 | 4,494 | 13.8 | 42.5 | 4.5 | 49.0 |
| 16 | Intel Corp. | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipments | 172,394 | 10,566 | 6.1 | 20.6 | 23.5 | 49.0 |
| 17 | Seagate Technology Public Limited Co. | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 18,672 | 3,110 | 16.7 | 45.2 | 2.3 | 48.6 |
| 18 | Lockheed Martin Corp. | Capital Goods | 57,683 | 3,720 | 6.4 | 43.0 | 2.9 | 47.2 |
| 19 | Ameriprise Financial | Diversified Financials | 23,097 | 3,147 | 13.6 | 54.6 | -5.1 | 46.7 |
| 20 | Adobe Systems | Software and Services | 34,508 | 1,675 | 4.9 | 48.7 | -2.3 | 45.3 |
| 21 | Humana | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 20,098 | 806 | 4.0 | 36.2 | 6.7 | 45.3 |
| 22 | General Dynamics Corp. | Capital Goods | 42,488 | 3,857 | 9.1 | 40.3 | 3.1 | 44.8 |
| 23 | Celgene Corp. | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 75,778 | 5,772 | 7.6 | 59.8 | -9.4 | 44.7 |
| 24 | Legg Mason | Diversified Financials | 5,925 | 724 | 12.2 | 41.1 | 2.1 | 4.41 |
| 25 | Moody's Corp. | Diversified Financials | 19,958 | 1,745 | 8.7 | 53.7 | -6.8 | 43.3 |
| 26 | Covidien | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 39,081 | 1,906 | 4.9 | 34.2 | 6.7 | 43.2 |
| 27 | Xerox Corp. | Software and Services | 15,170 | 1,760 | 11.6 | 37.6 | 4.0 | 43.1 |
| 28 | Northrop Grumman Corp. | Capital Goods | 27,398 | 4,899 | 17.9 | 41.8 | 0.9 | 43.1 |
| 29 | Yahoo! | Software and Services | 40,530 | 7,346 | 18.1 | 55.5 | -8.1 | 43.0 |
| 30 | Lincoln National Corp. | Insurance | 13,988 | 992 | 7.1 | 55.3 | -8.9 | 41.4 |
| 31 | MeadWestvaco Corp. | Materials | 6,898 | 471 | 6.8 | 27.0 | 10.7 | 40.6 |
| 32 | Tyson Foods | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 14,786 | 909 | 6.1 | 57.2 | -10.7 | 40.3 |
| 33 | Allergan | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 52,955 | 1,672 | 3.2 | 37.8 | 1.8 | 40.2 |
| 34 | AmerisourceBergen Corp. | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 17,345 | 1,238 | 7.1 | 42.5 | -1.7 | 40.1 |
| 35 | Hess Corp. | Energy | 29,025 | 4,131 | 14.2 | 43.1 | -2.5 | 39.6 |
| 36 | Mylan | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 17,015 | 1,500 | 8.8 | 44.6 | -3.5 | 39.5 |
| 37 | The Priceline Group | Retailing | 60,765 | 1,131 | 1.9 | 40.0 | -1.0 | 38.6 |
| 38 | DIRECTV | Media | 43,453 | 6,733 | 15.5 | 29.9 | 6.5 | 38.4 |
| 39 | Aetna | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 28,723 | 2,895 | 10.1 | 48.1 | -6.8 | 38.0 |
| 40 | Lorillard | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 21,569 | 1,244 | 5.8 | 25.5 | 9.9 | 37.9 |
| 41 | Time Warner | Media | 63,841 | 6,730 | 10.5 | 42.3 | -3.1 | 37.9 |
| 42 | The Walt Disney Co. | Media | 152,824 | 10,614 | 6.9 | 34.6 | 2.3 | 37.8 |
| 43 | Delphi Automotive | Automobiles and Components | 18,379 | 1,222 | 6.6 | 55.5 | -11.5 | 37.7 |
| 44 | Raytheon Co. | Capital Goods | 31,575 | 1,088 | 3.4 | 34.4 | 2.4 | 37.6 |
| 45 | Robert Half International | Commercial and Professional Services | 6,718 | 352 | 5.2 | 36.6 | 0.5 | 37.4 |
| 46 | Microsoft Corp. | Software and Services | 381,999 | 13,932 | 3.6 | 25.0 | 9.9 | 37.3 |
| 47 | Cardinal Health | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 25,222 | 1,283 | 5.1 | 37.2 | 0.0 | 37.3 |
| 48 | McGraw Hill Financial | Diversified Financials | 22,878 | 1,340 | 5.9 | 34.4 | 2.1 | 37.2 |
| 49 | Union Pacific Corp. | Transportation | 97,299 | 4,825 | 5.0 | 33.2 | 2.5 | 36.5 |
| 50 | Time Warner Cable | Media | 40,104 | 3,331 | 8.3 | 32.8 | 2.6 | 36.3 |
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