| Buyback Scorecard Stock Buybacks Wrestle with an Aging BullBest & Worst Companies Industry 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% | ||
| 251 | The AES Corp. | Utilities | 9,819 | 630 | 6.4 | 15.2 | -15.8 | -3.0 |
| 252 | Precision Castparts Corp. | Capital Goods | 34,333 | 1,457 | 4.2 | 14.7 | -15.5 | -3.1 |
| 253 | Viacom | Media | 30,900 | 8,247 | 26.7 | 19.9 | -19.2 | -3.2 |
| 254 | Fossil Group | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 5,657 | 1,020 | 18.0 | 9.3 | -12.5 | -4.4 |
| 255 | The Gap | Retailing | 17,837 | 2,158 | 12.1 | 9.0 | -12.6 | -4.7 |
| 256 | Joy Global | Capital Goods | 4,530 | 533 | 11.8 | -5.9 | 0.4 | -5.5 |
| 257 | Xilinx | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 11,448 | 726 | 6.3 | 15.5 | -18.2 | -5.6 |
| 258 | General Motors Co. | Automobiles and Components | 56,150 | 5,715 | 10.2 | 14.2 | -18.6 | -7.1 |
| 259 | Hess Corp. | Energy | 22,070 | 5,217 | 23.6 | 24.6 | -25.8 | -7.6 |
| 260 | FMC Corp. | Materials | 7,600 | 372 | 4.9 | 2.0 | -10.1 | -8.3 |
| 261 | International Business Machines Corp. | Software and Services | 158,781 | 20,305 | 12.8 | -5.7 | -3.7 | -9.2 |
| 262 | Marathon Oil Corp. | Energy | 19,093 | 1,500 | 7.9 | 4.4 | -13.3 | -9.5 |
| 263 | The Mosaic Co. | Materials | 16,951 | 2,762 | 16.3 | -7.6 | -2.1 | -9.5 |
| 264 | Cameron International Corp. | Energy | 9,862 | 2,975 | 30.2 | 1.5 | -11.0 | -9.7 |
| 265 | Teradata Corp. | Software and Services | 6,683 | 933 | 14.0 | -19.0 | 10.6 | -10.4 |
| 266 | Occidental Petroleum Corp. | Energy | 62,507 | 3,443 | 5.5 | 8.1 | -17.7 | -11.0 |
| 267 | Murphy Oil Corp. | Energyl | 8,967 | 875 | 9.8 | 3.8 | -15.0 | -11.7 |
| 268 | Juniper Networks | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 9,655 | 2,840 | 29.4 | 9.6 | -19.8 | -12.1 |
| 269 | The ADT Corp. | Commercial and Professional Services | 6,323 | 2,698 | 42.7 | -7.9 | -5.7 | -13.2 |
| 270 | Urban Outfitters | Retailing | 4,625 | 500 | 10.8 | -6.8 | -8.6 | -14.8 |
| 271 | Discovery Communications | Media | 22,900 | 2,727 | 11.9 | 7.6 | -20.9 | -14.9 |
| 272 | Ford Motor Co. | Automobiles and Components | 59,655 | 2,177 | 3.6 | 19.1 | -33.8 | -21.1 |
| 273 | Fluor Corp. | Capital Goods | 9,472 | 975 | 10.3 | 7.7 | -27.1 | -21.4 |
| 274 | Mattel | Consumer Durables and Apparels | 10,485 | 670 | 6.4 | -4.7 | -17.8 | -21.7 |
| 275 | Apache Corp. | Energy | $23,594 | 2,861 | 12.1 | -5.0 | -22.9 | -26.7 |
| 276 | Coach | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 10,351 | 525 | 5.1 | -18.8 | -15.5 | -31.4 |
| 277 | Denbury Resources | Energy | 2,834 | 493 | 17.4 | -18.2 | -22.6 | -36.7 |
| 278 | Nabors Industries Ltd. | Energy | 3,757 | 250 | 6.7 | 6.6 | -88.1 | -87.3 |
| 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. | ||||||||
