| Buyback Scorecard As Stocks Edge Higher, Buyback Programs Get RiskierBest & Worst CompaniesIndustry Comparisons |
The table below ranks the 276 companies in the S&P 500 that bought back at least 4 percent of their shares from March 31, 2013, through March 31, 2015. 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—276 | ||||||||
| Company | Industry | Market Capitalization | $ Total Buyback | $ Total Buyback / Market Cap | Buyback Strategy | Buyback Effectiveness | Buyback ROI | |
| Average | $48,969 | $3,699 | 9.2% | 20.8% | -3.9% | 16.3% | ||
| Median | $24,408 | $1,949 | 7.7% | 20.1% | -3.6% | 16.5% | ||
| 151 | The PNC Financial Services Group | Banks | 48,549 | 1,641 | 3.4 | 22.4 | -6.5 | 14.5 |
| 152 | SanDisk Corp. | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 13,552 | 3,625 | 26.8 | 28.5 | -10.9 | 14.5 |
| 153 | Northern Trust Corp. | Diversified Financials | 16,272 | 823 | 5.1 | 16.0 | -1.4 | 14.3 |
| 154 | The Chubb Corp. | Insurance | 23,306 | 2,864 | 12.3 | 13.0 | 1.0 | 14.1 |
| 155 | CenturyLink | Telecommunication Services | 19,572 | 2,024 | 10.3 | 6.1 | 7.4 | 14.0 |
| 156 | The Priceline Group | Retailing | 60,465 | 1,866 | 3.1 | 27.5 | -10.8 | 13.7 |
| 157 | U.S. Bancorp | Banks | 77,851 | 4,446 | 5.7 | 16.8 | -2.7 | 13.6 |
| 158 | Pfizer | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 213,622 | 21,341 | 10.0 | 14.5 | -0.8 | 13.6 |
| 159 | United Technologies Corp. | Capital Goods | 106,470 | 5,365 | 5.0 | 17.6 | -3.6 | 13.4 |
| 160 | The Estée Lauder Cos. | Household and Personal Products | 31,440 | 1,318 | 4.2 | 12.6 | 0.5 | 13.2 |
| 161 | General Motors Co. | Automobiles and Components | 60,569 | 6,015 | 9.9 | 15.3 | -1.9 | 13.1 |
| 162 | The Goldman Sachs Group | Diversified Financials | 81,884 | 11,369 | 13.9 | 13.8 | -0.9 | 12.8 |
| 163 | Urban Outfitters | Retailing | 5,957 | 627 | 10.5 | -3.1 | 16.2 | 12.6 |
| 164 | DENTSPLY International | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 7,142 | 366 | 5.1 | 11.8 | 0.2 | 12.0 |
| 165 | Expeditors International of Washington | Transportation | 9,239 | 872 | 9.4 | 7.9 | 3.3 | 11.5 |
| 166 | KeyCorp. | Banks | 12,111 | 773 | 6.4 | 22.7 | -9.2 | 11.5 |
| 167 | Assurant | Insurance | 4,229 | 686 | 16.2 | 27.6 | -12.7 | 11.4 |
| 168 | Colgate-Palmolive Co. | Household and Personal Products | 62,880 | 3,040 | 4.8 | 13.9 | -2.5 | 11.0 |
| 169 | State Street Corp. | Diversified Financials | 30,315 | 4,224 | 13.9 | 17.6 | -6.0 | 10.5 |
| 170 | Kimberly-Clark Corp. | Household and Personal Products | 39,117 | 2,660 | 6.8 | 16.3 | -5.0 | 10.4 |
| 171 | Ecolab | Materials | 34,011 | 1,127 | 3.3 | 21.7 | -9.3 | 10.4 |
| 172 | Wal-Mart Stores | Food and Staples Retailing | 265,107 | 5,732 | 2.2 | 12.2 | -1.6 | 10.4 |
| 173 | The Hershey Co. | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 22,284 | 985 | 4.4 | 16.0 | -5.0 | 10.2 |
| 174 | United Parcel Service | Transportation | 87,492 | 6,184 | 7.1 | 15.0 | -4.2 | 10.1 |
| 175 | Symantec Corp. | Software and Services | 15,944 | 1,000 | 6.3 | 7.8 | 2.1 | 10.1 |
| 176 | Motorola Solutions | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 14,446 | 3,986 | 27.6 | 6.8 | 2.9 | 9.9 |
| 177 | McCormick & Co. | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 9,860 | 426 | 4.3 | 7.7 | 1.9 | 9.8 |
| 178 | Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 29,812 | 1,850 | 6.2 | 27.1 | -13.9 | 9.4 |
| 179 | Target Corp. | Retailing | 52,668 | 1,518 | 2.9 | 13.4 | -3.6 | 9.3 |
| 180 | JPMorgan Chase & Co. | Banks | 225,013 | 8,871 | 3.9 | 14.1 | -4.4 | 9.0 |
| 181 | The Procter & Gamble Co. | Household and Personal Products | 221,280 | 10,259 | 4.6 | 10.7 | -1.5 | 9.0 |
| 182 | Cummins | Capital Goods | 25,136 | 1,188 | 4.7 | 12.6 | -3.4 | 8.8 |
| 183 | General Mills | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 33,739 | 3,207 | 9.5 | 13.4 | -4.2 | 8.7 |
| 184 | Mondelez International | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 59,181 | 3,993 | 6.7 | 15.7 | -6.2 | 8.6 |
| 185 | Discover Financial Services | Diversified Financials | 25,140 | 3,019 | 12.0 | 22.9 | -11.7 | 8.5 |
| 186 | Johnson Controls | Automobiles and Components | 33,154 | 2,234 | 6.7 | 25.1 | -13.3 | 8.5 |
| 187 | Torchmark Corp. | Insurance | 6,984 | 913 | 13.1 | 20.3 | -10.3 | 7.9 |
| 188 | People's United Financial | Banks | 4,562 | 321 | 7.0 | 12.3 | -4.0 | 7.8 |
| 189 | Johnson & Johnson | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 279,717 | 12,860 | 4.6 | 19.3 | -9.8 | 7.5 |
| 190 | St. Jude Medical | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 18,320 | 1,200 | 6.6 | 30.1 | -17.4 | 7.5 |
| 191 | Monsanto Co. | Materials | 54,425 | 54,425 | 15.3 | 9.9 | -2.3 | 7.4 |
| 192 | Altera Corp. | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 12,911 | 964 | 7.5 | 3.0 | 4.3 | 7.4 |
| 193 | Bank of America Corp. | Banks | 161,909 | 4,895 | 3.0 | 17.2 | -8.4 | 7.3 |
| 194 | Yum! Brands | Consumer Services | 34,117 | 1,616 | 4.7 | 9.1 | -1.8 | 7.1 |
| 195 | Phillips 66 | Energy | 42,627 | 4,545 | 10.7 | 12.1 | -4.5 | 7.0 |
| 196 | eBay | Software and Services | 69,946 | 6,525 | 9.3 | 2.3 | 4.3 | 6.8 |
| 197 | CA | Software and Services | 14,440 | 722 | 5.0 | 17.4 | -9.2 | 6.7 |
| 198 | EMC Corp. | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 50,528 | 7,007 | 13.9 | 8.1 | -1.4 | 6.5 |
| 199 | Coca-Cola Enterprises | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 10,297 | 1,944 | 18.9 | 13.8 | -6.9 | 5.9 |
| 200 | Rockwell Automation | Capital Goods | 15,710 | 970 | 6.2 | 15.2 | -8.0 | 5.9 |
| Source: Fortuna Advisors Analysis using data from the Capital IQ database. Financial Data from March 2013 to March 2015. Includes the 492 members of the current S&P 500 that were public for the full period. Market Capitalization as of: 03/31/2015. Companies included here if $ Total Buyback / Market Capitalization is greater than 4% or if $ Total Buyback is greater than $1 billion.. | ||||||||