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..