| 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% | ||
| 151 | U.S. Bancorp | Banks | 80,433 | 4,482 | 5.6 | 17.3 | -1.4 | 15.7 |
| 152 | VeriSign | Software and Services | 6,902 | 1,919 | 27.8 | 17.8 | -1.9 | 15.5 |
| 153 | Bank of America Corp. | Banks | 188,139 | 4,895 | 2.6 | 32.1 | -12.5 | 15.5 |
| 154 | Honeywell International | Capital Goods | 78,218 | 1,997 | 2.6 | 27.3 | -9.4 | 15.3 |
| 155 | Dollar General Corp. | Retailing | 21,452 | 1,420 | 6.6 | 17.1 | -1.5 | 15.2 |
| 156 | State Street Corp. | Diversified Financials | 32,773 | 4,111 | 12.5 | 32.0 | -12.7 | 15.2 |
| 157 | The Chubb Corp. | Insurance | 24,400 | 2,835 | 11.6 | 16.3 | -1.0 | 15.2 |
| 158 | Northern Trust Corp. | Diversified Financials | 15,873 | 790 | 5.0 | 20.5 | -4.5 | 15.1 |
| 159 | Parker-Hannifin Corp. | Capital Goods | 19,168 | 1,176 | 6.1 | 24.8 | -7.9 | 14.9 |
| 160 | Oracle Corp. | Software and Services | 197,480 | 18,849 | 9.5 | 15.0 | -0.1 | 14.9 |
| 161 | The Procter & Gamble Co. | Household and Personal Products | 246,136 | 11,259 | 4.6 | 16.6 | -1.5 | 14.8 |
| 162 | American Express Co. | Diversified Financials | 96,266 | 8,372 | 8.7 | 27.3 | -9.9 | 14.7 |
| 163 | Dollar Tree | Retailing | 14,474 | 1,112 | 7.7 | 24.2 | -7.7 | 14.6 |
| 164 | Capital One Financial Corp. | Diversified Financialst | 46,337 | 3,078 | 6.6 | 19.7 | -4.5 | 14.3 |
| 165 | Valero Energy Corp. | Energy | 25,802 | 1,995 | 7.7 | 33.2 | -14.6 | 13.7 |
| 166 | Torchmark Corp. | Insurance | 6,969 | 932 | 13.4 | 25.8 | -9.7 | 13.7 |
| 167 | KeyCorp. | Banks | 12,042 | 641 | 5.3 | 28.5 | -11.9 | 13.2 |
| 168 | Kohl’s Corp. | Retailing | 12,331 | 1,508 | 12.2 | 11.5 | 1.3 | 13.0 |
| 169 | Mondelez International | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 61,023 | 2,493 | 4.1 | 19.7 | -6.0 | 12.6 |
| 170 | Marathon Petroleum Corp. | Energy | 25,290 | 4,924 | 19.5 | 26.4 | -10.9 | 12.6 |
| 171 | XL Group | Insurance | 8,869 | 1,478 | 16.7 | 19.9 | -6.2 | 12.5 |
| 172 | Twenty-First Century Fox | Media | 81,596 | 7,094 | 8.7 | 29.0 | -12.8 | 12.4 |
| 173 | The Western Union Co. | Software and Services | 9,360 | 895 | 9.6 | 12.5 | -0.4 | 12.1 |
| 174 | Comerica | Banks | 8,417 | 551 | 6.5 | 27.8 | -12.4 | 12.0 |
| 175 | Unum Group | Insurance | 8,789 | 623 | 7.1 | 31.5 | -14.8 | 12.0 |
| 176 | PulteGroup | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 7,957 | 381 | 4.8 | 9.4 | 2.3 | 11.9 |
| 177 | Colgate-Palmolive Co. | Household and Personal Products | 63,060 | 3,051 | 4.8 | 15.1 | -3.0 | 11.7 |
| 178 | Dover Corp. | Capital Goods | 11,860 | 1,062 | 9.0 | 25.0 | -10.9 | 11.4 |
| 179 | AutoNation | Retailing | 6,835 | 555 | 8.1 | 14.9 | -3.1 | 11.3 |
| 180 | Cummins | Capital Goods | 26,180 | 1,051 | 4.0 | 22.3 | -9.1 | 11.2 |
| 181 | Symantec Corp. | Software and Services | 17,706 | 1,000 | 5.6 | 19.3 | -6.8 | 11.2 |
| 182 | FLIR Systems | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 4,552 | 301 | 6.6 | 27.3 | -13.0 | 10.7 |
| 183 | Varian Medical Systems | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 8,667 | 1,070 | 12.3 | 13.0 | -2.0 | 10.7 |
| 184 | Airgas | Materials | 8,604 | 378 | 4.4 | 15.7 | -4.3 | 10.7 |
| 185 | The PNC Financial Services Group | Banks | 48,006 | 1,200 | 2.5 | 24.9 | -11.7 | 10.3 |
| 186 | Prudential Financial | Insurance | 41,431 | 1,738 | 4.2 | 30.1 | -15.2 | 10.3 |
| 187 | Accenture | Software and Services | 56,098 | 5,553 | 9.9 | 12.9 | -2.5 | 10.1 |
| 188 | Phillips 66 | Energy | 39,687 | 4,528 | 11.4 | 25.7 | -12.5 | 9.9 |
| 189 | The Coca-Cola Co. | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 184,928 | 8,994 | 4.9 | 10.1 | -0.2 | 9.8 |
| 190 | NetApp | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 12,920 | 2,980 | 23.1 | 17.6 | -6.7 | 9.7 |
| 191 | Citrix Systems | Software and Services | 10,270 | 2,047 | 19.9 | 0.5 | 9.1 | 9.6 |
| 192 | Citigroup | Banks | 163,926 | 3,029 | 1.8 | 20.4 | -9.1 | 9.5 |
| 193 | People’s United Financial | Banks | 4,553 | 464 | 10.2 | 15.4 | -5.2 | 9.4 |
| 194 | LyondellBasell Industries | Materials | 39,748 | 5,871 | 14.8 | 34.4 | -18.6 | 9.4 |
| 195 | Bed Bath & Beyond | Retailing | 14,110 | 3,058 | 21.7 | 9.0 | 0.0 | 9.0 |
| 196 | Wal-Mart Stores | Food and Staples Retailing | 276,808 | 7,698 | 2.8 | 8.7 | 0.1 | 8.8 |
| 197 | Waters Corp. | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 9,387 | 639 | 6.8 | 14.2 | -4.9 | 8.6 |
| 198 | General Electric Co. | Capital Goods | 253,766 | 12,598 | 5.0 | 13.0 | -4.2 | 8.3 |
| 199 | Coca-Cola Enterprises | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 10,689 | 1,918 | 17.9 | 20.0 | -9.8 | 8.2 |
| 200 | Tyco International Ltd. | Commercial and Professional Services | 18,354 | 2,500 | 13.6 | 25.4 | -14.1 | 7.7 |
| 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.. | ||||||||
