Buyback
Scorecard The Most and Least Effective Stock Buyback Programs The S&P 500 as Stock Repurchasers Industry Comparisons
The table below shows the 10 most and least effective stock buyback programs among the companies in the S&P 500 that bought back at least 4 percent or $1 billion of their shares from September 30, 2011 through September 30, 2013, according to their return on investment. 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 these companies’ 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.

The Best and Worst Corporate
Stock Buyback Programs
Best
Company Industry Market
Capitalization 		$ Total
Buyback 		$ Total
Buyback /
Market Cap 		Buyback
Strategy 		Buyback
Effectiveness 		Buyback ROI
1 Constellation Brands Food, Beverage and Tobacco 10,812 609 5.6 67.2 19.7 100.1
2 GameStop Corp. Retailing 5,804 660 11.4 47.5 33.7 97.1
3 Gilead Sciences Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences 96,230 1,076 1.1 73.3 12.7 95.2
4 Cigna Corp. Healthcare Equipment and Services 21,739 1,044 4.8 29.6 35.8 76.1
5 Celgene Corp. Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences 63,393 4,758 7.5 53.8 13.9 75.2
6 Western Digital Corp. Technology Hardware and Equipment 14,952 1,596 10.7 45.8 17.8 71.8
7 H&R Block Consumer Services 7,285 346 4.8 48.7 15.4 71.6
8 Lincoln National Corp. Insurance 11,106 1,043 9.4 39.8 19.1 66.5
9 Gannett Co., Inc. Media 6,139 258 4.2 56.8 5.1 64.8
10 Yahoo!. Software and Services 33,844 5,697 16.8 43.2 14.8 64.3
Worst
Company Industry Market
Capitalization 		$ Total
Buyback 		$ Total
Buyback /
Market Cap 		Buyback
Strategy 		Buyback
Effectiveness 		Buyback ROI
1 Intuitive Surgical Healthcare Equipment and Services 14,942 1,348 9.0 3.6 -39.2 -37.0
2 Broadcom Corp. Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment 15,066 628 4.2 -8.3 -30.4 -36.2
3 Edwards Lifesciences Corp. Healthcare Equipment and Services 7,818 890 11.4 -3.8 -12.4 -15.7
4 F5 Networks Technology Hardware and Equipment 6,719 385 5.7 -1.5 13.6 -15.0
5 CenturyLink Telecommunication Services 18,849 1,289 6.8 4.8 -17.6 -13.6
6 Teradata Corp. Software and Services 9,042 496 5.5 4.6 -10.9 -6.8
7 Coach Consumer Durables and Apparel 15,323 1,216 7.9 -1.1 -5.7 -6.8
8 Allergan Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences 26,851 1,646 6.1 6.0 -12.1 -6.8
9 The Mosaic Co. Materials 18,319 1,163 6.3 -15.5 10.7 -6.4
10 CH Robinson Worldwide Transportation 9,498 1,049 11.0 -7.2 4.5 -3.0
Source: Fortuna Advisors Analysis using data from the Capital IQ database. Financial Data from September 2011 to September 2013. Includes the 489 members of the current S&P 500 that were public for the full period. Market Capitalization as of: 09/30/2013. Companies Included here if $ Total Buyback / Market Capitalization is greater than 4% or if $ Total Buyback is greater than $1 Billion.