| Buyback Scorecard Stock Buybacks Wrestle with an Aging BullBest & Worst CompaniesIndustry Comparisons |
The table below ranks the 278 companies in the S&P 500 that bought back at least 4 percent of their shares from December 31, 2013, through December 31, 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—278 | ||||||||
| Company | Industry | Market Capitalization | $ Total Buyback | $ Total Buyback / Market Cap | Buyback Strategy | Buyback Effectiveness | Buyback ROI | |
| Average | $49,204 | $3,543 | 8.7% | 25.3% | -5.6% | 18.1% | ||
| Median | $24,279 | $1,744 | 7.3% | 24.5% | -4.7% | 17.2% | ||
| 51 | Tyson Foods | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 16,315 | 885 | 5.4 | 52.0 | -12.4 | 33.2 |
| 52 | KLA-Tencor Corp. | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 11,566 | 644 | 5.6 | 35.1 | -1.7 | 32.8 |
| 53 | Seagate Technology | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 21,761 | 2,257 | 10.4 | 53.5 | -13.6 | 32.5 |
| 54 | Biogen Idec | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 80,163 | 1,287 | 1.6 | 48.3 | -11.1 | 31.9 |
| 55 | Ball Corp. | Materials | 9,334 | 829 | 8.9 | 24.2 | 6.0 | 31.6 |
| 56 | Fiserv | Software and Services | 17,314 | 1,469 | 8.5 | 34.0 | -1.9 | 31.5 |
| 57 | Tesoro Corp. | Energy | 9,386 | 685 | 7.3 | 34.6 | -2.4 | 31.3 |
| 58 | Adobe Systems | Software and Services | 36,258 | 1,700 | 4.7 | 43.1 | -8.5 | 30.9 |
| 59 | DIRECTV | Media | 43,544 | 5,386 | 12.4 | 30.7 | 0.1 | 30.9 |
| 60 | Autodesk | Software and Services | 13,665 | 796 | 5.8 | 32.9 | -2.0 | 30.2 |
| 61 | CR Bard | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 12,480 | 1,398 | 11.2 | 29.0 | 1.0 | 30.2 |
| 62 | The Sherwin-Williams Co. | Materials | 25,251 | 2,258 | 8.9 | 26.7 | 2.7 | 30.1 |
| 63 | Intuit | Software and Services | 26,323 | 2,243 | 8.5 | 23.1 | 5.7 | 30.1 |
| 64 | Lincoln National Corp. | Insurance | 14,982 | 900 | 6.0 | 50.0 | -13.6 | 29.6 |
| 65 | The Walt Disney Co. | Media | 159,719 | 10,873 | 6.8 | 36.1 | -5.0 | 29.3 |
| 66 | Time Warner | Media | 71,623 | 6,477 | 9.0 | 37.4 | -5.9 | 29.3 |
| 67 | Aetna | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 31,242 | 2,659 | 8.5 | 40.6 | -8.2 | 29.1 |
| 68 | General Growth Properties | Real Estate | 24,862 | 1,123 | 4.5 | 18.8 | 8.6 | 29.0 |
| 69 | MeadWestvaco Corp. | Materials | 7,401 | 525 | 7.1 | 24.7 | 3.3 | 28.8 |
| 70 | Broadcom Corp. | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 25,651 | 1,119 | 4.4 | 13.7 | 13.2 | 28.8 |
| 71 | Expedia | Retailing | 10,802 | 839 | 7.8 | 22.3 | 5.2 | 28.7 |
| 72 | The Allstate Corp. | Insurance | 29,465 | 4,135 | 14.0 | 30.3 | -1.3 | 28.6 |
| 73 | Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 33,477 | 1,284 | 3.8 | 38.6 | -7.2 | 28.6 |
| 74 | Medtronic | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 71,068 | 4,173 | 5.9 | 30.8 | -1.8 | 28.4 |
| 75 | The Home Depot | Retailing | 138,332 | 15,546 | 11.2 | 27.6 | 0.2 | 27.8 |
| 76 | Time Warner Cable | Media | 42,652 | 2,768 | 6.5 | 25.8 | 1.6 | 27.7 |
| 77 | Morgan Stanley | Diversified Financials | 75,947 | 1,863 | 2.5 | 44.3 | -11.8 | 27.3 |
| 78 | Automatic Data Processing | Software and Services | 40,189 | 1,428 | 3.6 | 30.0 | 2.2 | 27.3 |
| 79 | Xerox Corp. | Software and Services | 15,678 | 1,243 | 7.9 | 43.1 | -11.1 | 27.2 |
| 80 | Leggett & Platt | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 5,864 | 246 | 4.2 | 26.8 | 0.3 | 27.2 |
| 81 | Texas Instruments | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 56,475 | 5,699 | 10.1 | 35.3 | -6.0 | 27.2 |
| 82 | Pall Corp. | Capital Goods | 10,782 | 563 | 5.2 | 24.2 | 2.3 | 27.0 |
| 83 | NVIDIA Corp. | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 10,898 | 1,701 | 15.6 | 28.0 | -0.9 | 26.9 |
| 84 | 3M Co. | Capital Goods | 104,514 | 10,864 | 10.4 | 32.7 | -4.4 | 26.9 |
| 85 | Marsh & McLennan Cos. | Insurance | 30,961 | 1,493 | 4.8 | 28.9 | -1.8 | 26.5 |
| 86 | The Hartford Financial Services Group | Insurance | 17,988 | 1,935 | 10.8 | 38.2 | -9.0 | 25.8 |
| 87 | Ross Stores | Retailing | 19,652 | 1,169 | 5.9 | 22.0 | 3.1 | 25.8 |
| 88 | Discover Financial Services | Diversified Financials | 29,698 | 2,860 | 9.6 | 28.3 | -2.0 | 25.7 |
| 89 | E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. | Materials | 66,986 | 3,000 | 4.5 | 28.5 | -2.4 | 25.5 |
| 90 | Cigna Corp. | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 26,919 | 2,615 | 9.7 | 38.3 | -9.3 | 25.4 |
| 91 | Visa | Software and Services | 162,106 | 9,213 | 5.7 | 30.3 | -3.9 | 25.2 |
| 92 | Zimmer Holdings | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 19,208 | 1,120 | 5.8 | 30.0 | -4.2 | 24.5 |
| 93 | Newell Rubbermaid | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 10,326 | 882 | 8.5 | 32.7 | -6.2 | 24.5 |
| 94 | Walgreens Boots Alliance | Food and Staples Retailing | 72,058 | 1,770 | 2.5 | 41.0 | -11.7 | 24.4 |
| 95 | The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. | Diversified Financials | 45,670 | 2,695 | 5.9 | 29.3 | -3.8 | 24.3 |
| 96 | Fidelity National Information Services | Software and Services | 17,649 | 872 | 4.9 | 33.8 | -7.2 | 24.2 |
| 97 | Nordstrom | Retailing | 15,104 | 1,125 | 7.4 | 18.2 | 4.9 | 24.1 |
| 98 | St. Jude Medical | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 18,593 | 1,309 | 7.0 | 33.8 | -7.3 | 24.0 |
| 99 | Delphi Automotive | Automobiles and Components | 21,531 | 1,481 | 6.9 | 45.9 | -15.2 | 23.7 |
| 100 | L-3 Communications Holdings | Capital Goods | 10,745 | 1,623 | 15.1 | 29.3 | -4.4 | 23.6 |
| Source: Fortuna Advisors Analysis using data from the Capital IQ database. Financial Data from December 2013 to December 2014. Includes the 493 members of the current S&P 500 that were public for the full period. Market Capitalization as of: 12/31/2014. Companies included here if $ Total Buyback / Market Capitalization is greater than 4% or if $ Total Buyback is greater than $1 billion. | ||||||||
