| 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% | ||
| 201 | Altera Corp. | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | $11,260 | 907 | 8.1 | 6.4 | 1.2 | 7.7 |
| 202 | Regions Financial Corp. | Banks | 14,536 | 596 | 4.1 | 22.4 | -12.1 | 7.5 |
| 203 | Franklin Resources | Diversified Financials | 34,461 | 1,166 | 3.4 | 15.2 | -6.8 | 7.4 |
| 204 | General Mills | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 32,198 | 3,280 | 10.2 | 16.8 | -8.2 | 7.2 |
| 205 | Fifth Third Bancorp | Banks | 16,789 | 1,974 | 11.8 | 18.7 | -9.7 | 7.2 |
| 206 | Avery Dennison Corp. | Materials | 4,726 | 470 | 9.9 | 23.9 | -13.5 | 7.1 |
| 207 | Quest Diagnostics | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 9,692 | 1,169 | 12.1 | 5.3 | 1.6 | 6.9 |
| 208 | QUALCOMM | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 123,581 | 10,573 | 8.6 | 11.4 | -4.0 | 6.9 |
| 209 | Rockwell Automation | Capital Goods | 15,083 | 964 | 6.4 | 22.4 | -12.7 | 6.9 |
| 210 | Pfizer | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 196,265 | 19,967 | 10.2 | 13.7 | -6.2 | 6.6 |
| 211 | The Estée Lauder Cos. | Household and Personal Products | 28,927 | 1,207 | 4.2 | 12.2 | -5.0 | 6.6 |
| 212 | McCormick & Co. | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 9,615 | 422 | 4.4 | 8.6 | -1.9 | 6.5 |
| 213 | United Technologies Corp. | Capital Goods | 104,841 | 2,700 | 2.6 | 19.9 | -11.2 | 6.4 |
| 214 | Harley-Davidson | Automobiles and Components | 14,122 | 1,095 | 7.8 | 20.2 | -11.7 | 6.2 |
| 215 | Johnson Controls | Automobiles and Components | 32,271 | 2,074 | 6.4 | 33.5 | -20.4 | 6.2 |
| 216 | Caterpillar | Capital Goods | 55,412 | 6,238 | 11.3 | 9.5 | -3.1 | 6.1 |
| 217 | American International Group | Insurance | 78,191 | 5,499 | 7.0 | 26.2 | -16.0 | 6.0 |
| 218 | Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide | Consumer Services | 14,477 | 1,952 | 13.5 | 24.4 | -14.9 | 5.9 |
| 219 | Ralph Lauren Corp. | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 16,239 | 990 | 6.1 | 6.6 | -0.8 | 5.8 |
| 220 | Monsanto Co. | Materials | 57,776 | 8,446 | 14.6 | 15.7 | -8.7 | 5.7 |
| 221 | Baxter International | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 39,722 | 1,030 | 2.6 | 8.6 | -2.7 | 5.6 |
| 222 | The J. M. Smucker Co. | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 10,281 | 713 | 6.9 | 11.1 | -5.0 | 5.5 |
| 223 | Schlumberger Limited | Energy | 109,905 | 5,766 | 5.2 | 15.8 | -8.9 | 5.5 |
| 224 | Motorola Solutions | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 15,909 | 3,690 | 23.2 | 11.9 | -5.9 | 5.4 |
| 225 | Praxair | Materials | 37,750 | 1,452 | 3.8 | 11.2 | -5.4 | 5.2 |
| 226 | Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 9,118 | 1,285 | 14.1 | 8.8 | -3.5 | 5.0 |
| 227 | Scripps Networks Interactive | Media | 10,320 | 1,452 | 14.1 | 13.7 | -7.8 | 4.8 |
| 228 | Kellogg Co. | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 23,233 | 1,234 | 5.3 | 11.9 | -6.6 | 4.6 |
| 229 | Expeditors International of Washington | Transportation | 8,611 | 813 | 9.4 | 9.4 | -4.7 | 4.3 |
| 230 | Flowserve Corp. | Capital Goods | 8,155 | 705 | 8.6 | 19.2 | -12.5 | 4.2 |
| 231 | Halliburton Co. | Energy | 33,331 | 5,156 | 15.5 | 22.5 | -15.2 | 3.8 |
| 232 | The Dow Chemical Co. | Materials | 53,754 | 4,500 | 8.4 | 31.1 | -21.2 | 3.3 |
| 233 | AT&T | Telecommunication Services | 174,231 | 14,645 | 8.4 | 4.7 | -1.4 | 3.2 |
| 234 | Target Corp. | Retailing | 48,352 | 1,461 | 3.0 | 7.1 | -3.6 | 3.2 |
| 235 | Emerson Electric Co. | Capital Goods | 42,732 | 2,554 | 6.0 | 15.1 | -10.4 | 3.2 |
| 236 | Exxon Mobil Corp. | Energy | 391,482 | 29,181 | 7.5 | 5.0 | -2.0 | 2.9 |
| 237 | Philip Morris International | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 126,550 | 9,797 | 7.7 | 3.0 | -0.1 | 2.9 |
| 238 | Yum! Brands | Consumer Services | 31,871 | 1,590 | 5.0 | 4.2 | -1.5 | 2.7 |
| 239 | Deere & Co. | Capital Goods | 30,460 | 4,771 | 15.7 | 3.5 | -0.7 | 2.7 |
| 240 | The Boeing Co. | Capital Goods | 92,667 | 7,802 | 8.4 | 34.6 | -23.8 | 2.6 |
| 241 | eBay | Software and Services | 69,722 | 6,001 | 8.6 | 4.3 | -3.3 | 0.8 |
| 242 | W.W. Grainger | Capital Goods | 17,379 | 964 | 5.5 | 13.0 | -11.0 | 0.6 |
| 243 | Eastman Chemical Co. | Materials | 11,267 | 658 | 5.8 | 17.0 | -14.4 | 0.1 |
| 244 | Pentair | Capital Goods | 12,407 | 868 | 7.0 | 21.5 | -18.1 | -0.5 |
| 245 | CBS Corp. | Media | 28,715 | 5,780 | 20.1 | 24.5 | -20.1 | -0.6 |
| 246 | McDonald’s Corp. | Consumer Services | 91,189 | 4,976 | 5.5 | 6.3 | -7.0 | -1.1 |
| 247 | GameStop Corp. | Retailing | 3,668 | 516 | 14.1 | 29.2 | -23.6 | -1.3 |
| 248 | AFLAC | Insurance | 27,526 | 2,023 | 7.3 | 10.1 | -10.6 | -1.6 |
| 249 | CA | Software and Services | 13,547 | 632 | 4.7 | 16.6 | -15.8 | -1.8 |
| 250 | Chevron Corp. | Energy | 212,068 | 8,906 | 4.2 | 5.5 | -8.0 | -2.9 |
| 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.. | ||||||||
