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%
251	Pentair	Capital Goods	11,306	928	8.2	13.8	-19.8	-8.8
252	Ralph Lauren Corp.	Consumer Durables and Apparel	11,482	1,090	9.5	-5.6	-4.1	-9.5
253	Viacom	Media	27,612	8,301	30.1	9.5	-17.4	-9.5
254	Xilinx	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	11,059	901	8.1	7.5	-16.2	-9.8
255	Caterpillar	Capital Goods	48,512	6,638	13.7	-3.0	-7.3	-10.1
256	International Business Machines Corp.	Software and Services	158,642	18,877	11.9	-9.6	-1.2	-10.6
257	The AES Corp.	Utilities	9,036	665	7.4	5.8	-15.8	-10.9
258	Murphy Oil Corp.	Energy	8,293	875	10.6	-2.3	-11.1	-13.2
259	MetLife	Insurance	56,578	1,986	3.5	19.6	-28.2	-14.2
260	Precision Castparts Corp.	Capital Goods	29,771	2,085	7.0	6.2	-19.5	-14.4
261	Occidental Petroleum Corp.	Energy	56,186	3,644	6.5	1.4	-15.8	-14.6
262	Fossil Group	Consumer Durables and Apparel	4,154	1,075	25.9	-5.2	-9.9	-14.6
263	Owens-Illinois	Materials	3,830	168	4.4	-0.4	-15.9	-16.3
264	Hess Corp.	Energy	19,400	5,284	27.2	5.9	-21.2	-16.6
265	Coach	Consumer Durables and Apparel	11,428	525	4.6	-9.4	-9.2	-17.7
266	Joy Global	Capital Goods	3,815	533	14.0	-17.0	-3.0	-19.5
267	Marathon Oil Corp.	Energy	17,629	1,500	8.5	-8.1	-12.4	-19.5
268	Discovery Communications	Media	20,194	3,044	15.1	-6.6	-14.1	-19.8
269	Cameron International Corp.	Energy	8,702	3,125	35.9	-14.7	-9.9	-23.1
270	Mattel	Consumer Durables and Apparel	7,729	638	8.3	-15.0	-14.0	-26.9
271	Fluor Corp.	Capital Goods	8,427	1,087	12.9	-4.4	-23.7	-27.0
272	Apache Corp.	Energy	22,734	2,861	12.6	-9.7	-22.5	-30.0
273	Jacobs Engineering Group	Capital Goods	5,794	333	5.7	7.0	-27.0	-32.1
274	FMC Technologies	Energy	8,566	368	4.3	-10.4	-27.9	-35.4
275	Noble Corp.	Energy	3,455	257	7.4	-26.9	-34.1	-51.8
276	National Oilwell Varco	Energy	20,493	2,109	10.3	-5.4	-60.1	-62.2
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.