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		$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%
101	Valero Energy Corp.	Energy	24,429	1,631	6.7	41.5	-10.4	26.8
102	Starbucks Corp.	Consumer Services	56,686	1,347	2.4	26.7	0.1	26.8
103	Assurant	Insurance	4,590	551	12.0	38.3	-8.4	26.7
104	CR Bard	Healthcare Equipment and Services	10,651	1,364	12.8	21.5	4.0	26.3
105	3M Co.	Capital Goods	91,804	10,299	11.2	28.4	-1.7	26.3
106	Apache Corp.	Energy	35,903	2,827	7.9	7.7	17.2	26.3
107	Caterpillar	Capital Goods	62,176	6,238	10.0	13.7	11.0	26.2
108	L-3 Communications	Capital Goods	10,255	1,581	15.4	30.2	-3.2	26.1
109	Morgan Stanley	Diversified Financials	67,873	1,868	2.8	50.5	-16.3	26.0
110	Comcast Corp.	Media	139,068	5,000	3.6	29.9	-3.1	25.8
111	Ingersoll-Rand	Capital Goods	15,077	2,851	18.9	33.5	-5.8	25.8
112	Altria Group	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	91,120	1,258	1.4	16.8	7.7	25.8
113	Huntington Bancshares	Banks	7,949	508	6.4	25.0	0.0	24.9
114	General Growth Properties	Real Estate	20,814	1,123	5.4	15.1	8.4	24.8
115	Textron	Capital Goods	10,048	574	5.7	20.2	3.8	24.8
116	Marathon Oil Corp.	Energy	25,354	1,500	5.9	22.8	1.3	24.4
117	KeyCorp.	Banks	11,657	699	6.0	31.2	-5.3	24.2
118	Computer Sciences Corp.	Software and Services	8,871	1,363	15.4	47.5	-15.9	24.1
119	Zimmer	Healthcare Equipment and Services	16,985	1,259	7.4	28.0	-3.2	23.9
120	Edwards Lifesciences Corp.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	10,831	985	9.1	-3.8	28.7	23.9
121	E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co.	Materials	65,678	3,000	4.6	19.1	4.0	23.9
122	Agilent Technologies	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	19,004	1,100	5.8	23.5	0.3	23.8
123	Medtronic	Healthcare Equipment and Services	60,681	4,336	7.1	28.3	-3.5	23.8
124	Merck & Co.	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	171,001	13,751	15.8	30.0	-4.9	23.6
125	The Allstate Corp.	Insurance	26,598	4,207	15.8	30.0	-4.9	23.6
126	PPG Industries	Materials	27,118	1,450	5.3	38.1	-10.5	23.5
127	Capital One Financial Corp.	Diversified Financials	45,815	2,576	5.6	22.2	1.0	23.4
128	American Express Co.	Diversified Financials	91,616	8,187	8.9	26.6	-2.5	23.4
129	BlackRock	Diversified Financials	55,277	2,506	4.5	39.1	-11.3	23.4
130	Coca-Cola Enterprises	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	10,892	1,986	18.2	29.0	-4.4	23.3
131	Torchmark Corp.	Insurance	6,839	928	13.6	27.1	-3.0	23.2
132	Safeway	Food and Staples Retailing	7,903	664	8.4	59.2	-22.7	23.1
133	CareFusion Corp.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	9,204	1,080	11.7	31.0	-6.2	23.0
134	Dun & Bradstreet Corp.	Commercial and Professional Services	4,272	913	21.4	23.7	-0.6	22.9
135	Newell Rubbermaid	Consumer Durables and Apparel	9,421	789	8.4	38.6	-11.4	22.8
136	Tesoro Corp.	Energy	7,820	791	10.1	35.5	-9.6	22.5
137	Northern Trust Corp.	Diversified Financials	16,027	687	4.3	22.8	-0.3	22.4
138	GameStop Corp.	Retailing	4,642	597	12.9	56.1	-21.6	22.3
139	Republic Services	Commercial and Professional Services	13,879	609	4.4	21.2	0.9	22.3
140	Rockwell Automation	Capital Goods	15,149	888	5.9	33.4	-8.6	22.0
141	Honeywell International	Capital Goods	72,870	2,079	2.9	30.2	-6.4	21.9
142	Illinois Tool Works	Capital Goods	33,474	4,781	14.3	26.2	-3.5	21.9
143	CenturyLink	Telecommunication Services	23,314	2,161	9.3	3.9	17.3	21.8
144	The Sherwin-Williams Co.	Materials	21,415	1,988	9.3	25.2	-2.8	21.7
145	AutoZone	Retailing	16,464	2,487	15.1	19.7	1.4	21.3
146	Lowe's Companies	Retailing	52,238	7,410	14.2	37.9	-12.0	21.3
147	Nike	Consumer Durables and Apparel	77,452	3,942	4.3	22.4	0.1	22.5
148	MasterCard	Software and Services	85,597	6,287	7.3	33.2	-9.4	20.8
149	Prudential Financial	Insurance	40,452	1,488	3.7	35.3	-10.9	20.7
150	Automatic Data Processing	Software and Services	40,050	1,140	2.8	22.9	-1.9	20.6
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..