| 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. | ||||||||
