| 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% | ||
| 1 | Southwest Airlines Co. | Transportation | 28,724 | 1,495 | 5.2 | 101.2 | 2.0 | 105.2 |
| 2 | Darden Restaurants | Consumer Services | 7,273 | 503 | 6.9 | 7.6 | 67.4 | 80.2 |
| 3 | Keurig Green Mountain | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 21,449 | 1,223 | 5.7 | 117.9 | -20.9 | 72.2 |
| 4 | HCA Holdings | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 31,819 | 2,250 | 7.1 | 55.3 | 3.9 | 61.4 |
| 5 | Yahoo | Software and Services | 47,851 | 7,508 | 15.7 | 62.6 | -4.2 | 55.7 |
| 6 | The Kroger Co. | Food and Staples Retailing | 31,548 | 1,892 | 6.0 | 54.1 | 0.8 | 55.4 |
| 7 | Delta Air Lines | Transportation | 41,169 | 1,350 | 3.3 | 103.8 | -24.6 | 53.7 |
| 8 | Edwards Lifesciences Corp. | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 13,626 | 798 | 5.9 | 15.7 | 32.9 | 53.7 |
| 9 | Apple | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 647,361 | 70,940 | 11.0 | 17.5 | 30.7 | 53.5 |
| 10 | Gilead Sciences | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 142,207 | 5,931 | 4.2 | 70.3 | -10.0 | 53.3 |
| 11 | Marriott International | Consumer Services | 22,111 | 2,344 | 10.6 | 43.9 | 5.9 | 52.4 |
| 12 | Allergan | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 63,330 | 1,490 | 2.4 | 47.4 | 2.7 | 51.4 |
| 13 | General Dynamics Corp. | Capital Goods | 45,606 | 4,078 | 8.9 | 46.3 | 2.2 | 49.5 |
| 14 | Celgene Corp. | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 89,343 | 5,740 | 6.4 | 65.1 | -10.1 | 48.4 |
| 15 | McKesson Corp. | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 48,134 | 1,037 | 2.2 | 48.5 | -1.2 | 46.8 |
| 16 | Lockheed Martin Corp. | Capital Goods | 60,491 | 3,662 | 6.1 | 47.5 | -0.5 | 46.8 |
| 17 | CareFusion Corp. | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 12,117 | 1,080 | 8.9 | 43.9 | 1.3 | 45.8 |
| 18 | Lam Research Corp. | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 12,612 | 864 | 6.9 | 49.1 | -2.2 | 45.8 |
| 19 | Anthem | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 33,923 | 4,169 | 12.3 | 47.2 | -1.0 | 45.7 |
| 20 | Hewlett-Packard Co. | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 73,602 | 5,578 | 7.6 | 66.2 | -13.1 | 44.5 |
| 21 | Western Digital Corp. | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 25,708 | 1,826 | 7.1 | 68.0 | -14.5 | 43.6 |
| 22 | SanDisk Corp. | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 21,619 | 2,931 | 13.6 | 51.7 | -5.3 | 43.6 |
| 23 | Dr Pepper Snapple Group | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 13,935 | 800 | 5.7 | 29.2 | 11.1 | 43.6 |
| 24 | AmerisourceBergen Corp. | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 19,717 | 1,254 | 6.4 | 46.5 | -2.4 | 43.0 |
| 25 | Humana | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 22,024 | 1,419 | 6.4 | 41.2 | 1.2 | 42.9 |
| 26 | Northrop Grumman Corp. | Capital Goods | 29,773 | 5,039 | 16.9 | 46.1 | -2.9 | 41.9 |
| 27 | Cintas Corp. | Commercial and Professional Services | 9,176 | 491 | 5.3 | 34.4 | 5.1 | 41.2 |
| 28 | Union Pacific Corp. | Transportation | 105,918 | 5,443 | 5.1 | 39.5 | 0.9 | 40.7 |
| 29 | Intel Corp. | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 175,462 | 12,939 | 7.4 | 33.5 | 5.2 | 40.5 |
| 30 | O’Reilly Automotive | Retailing | 19,540 | 1,800 | 9.2 | 41.2 | -1.0 | 39.8 |
| 31 | Nike | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 82,834 | 4,366 | 5.3 | 41.3 | -1.1 | 39.8 |
| 32 | United Rentals | Capital Goods | 10,181 | 728 | 7.2 | 64.1 | -15.0 | 39.6 |
| 33 | Legg Mason | Diversified Financials | 6,090 | 735 | 12.1 | 46.4 | -4.7 | 39.6 |
| 34 | Altria Group | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 97,381 | 1,031 | 1.1 | 28.5 | 8.4 | 39.4 |
| 35 | Cardinal Health | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 26,719 | 1,609 | 6.0 | 42.2 | -2.6 | 38.6 |
| 36 | Mylan | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 21,098 | 1,000 | 4.7 | 43.6 | -3.6 | 38.5 |
| 37 | Moody’s Corp. | Diversified Financials | 19,986 | 2,114 | 10.6 | 45.3 | -4.7 | 38.5 |
| 38 | CVS Health Corp. | Food and Staples Retailing | 111,045 | 7,977 | 7.2 | 39.0 | -0.4 | 38.4 |
| 39 | Raytheon Co. | Capital Goods | 33,356 | 1,135 | 3.4 | 39.2 | -1.2 | 37.6 |
| 40 | Robert Half International | Commercial and Professional Services | 7,935 | 322 | 4.1 | 42.0 | -3.2 | 37.4 |
| 41 | McGraw Hill Financial | Diversified Financials | 24,158 | 1,142 | 4.7 | 32.4 | 3.2 | 36.7 |
| 42 | Ameriprise Financial | Diversified Financials | 24,404 | 3,160 | 12.9 | 48.9 | -8.3 | 36.5 |
| 43 | FedEx Corp. | Transportation | 49,200 | 5,804 | 11.8 | 37.9 | -1.3 | 36.0 |
| 44 | V.F. Corp. | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 32,347 | 1,019 | 3.1 | 36.4 | -0.3 | 36.0 |
| 45 | Navient Corp. | Diversified Financials | 8,865 | 967 | 10.9 | 40.2 | -3.0 | 36.0 |
| 46 | UnitedHealth Group | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 97,025 | 7,178 | 7.4 | 33.6 | 1.8 | 36.0 |
| 47 | Microsoft Corp. | Software and Services | 382,881 | 14,419 | 3.8 | 33.3 | 1.4 | 35.2 |
| 48 | Lowe’s Cos. | Retailing | 66,936 | 7,615 | 11.4 | 36.1 | -1.0 | 34.7 |
| 49 | Lorillard | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 22,660 | 940 | 4.1 | 32.0 | 1.4 | 33.8 |
| 50 | F5 Networks | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 9,626 | 951 | 9.9 | 15.3 | 15.9 | 33.7 |
| 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. | ||||||||
