Buyback Scorecard U.S. Share Buybacks Rebound but Face Sharp Criticism Best & Worst ProgramsIndustry Comparisons

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
	Company	Industry	Market Capitalization	$ Total Buyback	$ Total Buyback / Market Cap	Buyback Strategy	Buyback Effectiveness	Buyback ROI
	Average		$47,279	$3,328	8.4%	24.8%	0.0%	24.6%
	Median		$21,863	$1,630	7.3%	25.0%	0.1%	24.2%
201	Monsanto Co.	Materials	59,022	8,177	13.9	17.6	-3.8	13.1
202	Colgate-Palmolive Co.	Household and Personal Products	59,566	3,239	5.4	14.4	-1.3	12.9
203	People's United Financial	Banks	4,338	521	12.0	17.0	-3.6	12.8
204	Airgas	Materials	8,247	600	7.3	17.5	-4.0	12.8
205	Viacom	Media	32,375	7,495	23.2	31.2	-14.1	12.7
206	Sysco Corp.	Food and Staples Retailing	22,268	1,052	4.7	15.6	-2.5	12.7
207	Johnson Controls	Automobiles and Components	29,307	1,599	5.5	36.9	-17.7	12.6
208	Kohl's Corp.	Retailing	12,491	1,788	14.3	8.6	3.6	12.6
209	General Mills	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	30,459	2,957	9.7	19.7	-5.9	12.6
210	Avery Dennison Corp.	Materials	4,185	369	8.8	30.1	-13.7	12.3
211	General Electric Co.	Capital Goods	257,069	14,532	5.7	15.2	-2.6	12.2
212	Praxair	Materials	37,672	1,337	3.5	13.1	-0.8	12.2
213	CBS Corp.	Media	28,189	5,015	17.8	31.5	-14.7	12.2
214	Symantec Corp.	Software and Services	16,229	1,075	6.6	21.6	-7.9	12.0
215	VeriSign	Software and Services	6,891	1,803	26.2	8.3	3.1	11.7
216	Murphy Oil Corp.	Energy	10,106	1,125	11.1	21.5	-8.3	11.5
217	Chevron Corp.	Energy	226,581	8,019	3.5	10.6	0.6	11.3
218	Baxter International	Healthcare Equipment and Services	38,876	1,828	4.7	16.7	-5.1	10.7
219	Exxon Mobil Corp.	Energy	401,094	31,117	7.8	9.4	1.1	10.6
220	Express Scripts Holding Co.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	52,651	7,729	14.7	9.1	1.3	10.5
221	Tractor Supply Co.	Retailing	8,469	491	5.8	17.9	-6.5	10.3
222	The Gap	Retailing	18,130	2,588	14.3	15.6	-4.7	10.2
223	Bank of America Corp.	Banks	179,295	4,895	2.7	41.1	-22.0	10.1
224	The AES Corp.	Utilities	10,256	462	4.5	13.6	-3.1	10.1
225	Intuitive Surgical	Healthcare Equipment and Services	16,603	2,162	13.0	-6.2	16.9	9.6
226	Fluor Corp.	Capital Goods	10,520	705	6.7	19.4	-8.3	9.6
227	Laboratory Corp. of America	Healthcare Equipment and Services	8,639	1,382	16.0	8.5	0.9	9.4
228	Emerson Electric Co.	Capital Goods	43,676	2,158	4.9	18.6	-7.8	9.4
229	The Procter & Gamble Co.	Household and Personal Products	226,683	11,785	5.2	14.8	-4.9	9.1
230	Eastman Chemical Co.	Materials	12,063	658	5.5	27.0	-14.2	8.9
231	The TJX Cos.	Retailing	41,001	3,026	7.4	13.1	-3.8	8.9
232	Harley-Davidson	Automobiles and Components	12,656	926	7.3	23.1	-11.6	8.8
233	Dollar General Corp.	Retailing	18,541	1,495	8.1	7.5	1.1	8.7
234	United Technologies Corp.	Capital Goods	96,604	2,295	2.4	21.4	-10.5	8.7
235	The Coca-Cola Co.	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	187,104	8,735	4.7	6.3	1.5	7.9
236	The J. M. Smucker Co.	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	10,079	709	7.0	15.3	-6.6	7.7
237	NetApp	Technology Hardware and Equipment	13,715	2,842	20.7	11.6	-3.6	7.6
238	Discovery Communications	Media	25,489	2,606	10.2	23.8	-13.1	7.5
239	Accenture	Software and Services	51,069	5,104	10.0	17.0	-8.1	7.5
240	Ross Stores	Retailing	15,859	1,153	7.3	2.6	4.4	7.1
241	Motorola Solutions	Technology Hardware and Equipment	15,876	3,143	19.8	16.6	-8.2	7.0
242	Patterson Cos.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	4,206	238	5.7	9.2	-2.1	6.9
243	Altera Corp.	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	11,055	804	7.3	1.0	5.8	6.8
244	The Chubb Corp.	Insurance	21,903	2,554	11.7	13.8	-6.5	6.5
245	Precision Castparts Corp.	Capital Goods	33,986	1,254	3.7	22.8	-13.4	6.4
246	Expeditors International of Washington	Transportation	7,917	846	10.7	8.5	-2.1	6.3
247	Dollar Tree	Retailing	11,529	1,217	10.6	5.1	1.1	6.3
248	Juniper Networks	Technology Hardware and Equipment	9,994	2,589	25.9	16.0	-8.6	6.0
249	Yum! Brands	Consumer Services	31,646	1,557	4.9	8.5	-2.4	5.9
250	PulteGroup	Consumer Durables and Apparel	6,639	283	4.3	21.2	-12.7	5.8
Source: Fortuna Advisors Analysis using data from the Capital IQ database. Financial Data from September 2012 to September 2014. Includes the 491 members of the current S&P 500 that were public for the full period. Market Capitalization as of: 09/30/2014. Companies included here if $ Total Buyback / Market Capitalization is greater than 4% or if $ Total Buyback is greater than $1 billion.