Buyback Scorecard The Most and Least Effective Stock Buyback Programs Best and Worst Programs Industry Comparisons

The table below ranks the 268 companies in the S&P 500 that bought back at least 4 percent of their shares from September 30, 2011, through September 30, 2013. 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—263
	Company	Industry	Market Capitalization	$ Total Buyback	$ Total Buyback / Market Cap	Buyback Strategy	Buyback Effectiveness	Buyback ROI
	Average		$41,922	$3,016	8.7%	23.1%	4.4%	28.5%
	Median		$17,310	$1,400	7.8%	22.0%	3.5%	28.4%
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.	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
11	Boston Scientific Corp.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	15,765	1,176	7.5	28.3	28.0	64.3
12	General Motors Co.	Automobiles and Components	49,790	7,539	15.1	19.0	34.5	60.0
13	Bank of America Corp.	Diversified Financials	148,255	1,869	1.3	32.5	18.9	57.6
14	Ameriprise Financial	Diversified Financials	18,020	2,848	15.8	40.4	12.0	57.1
15	TE Connectivity	Technology Hardware and Equipment	21,413	1,029	4.8	28.7	21.9	56.9
16	Twenty-First Century Fox	Media	76,761	6,064	7.9	50.1	4.3	56.5
17	Moody's Corp.	Diversified Financials	15,501	944	6.1	43.5	8.6	55.9
18	Tenet Healthcare Corp.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	4,185	604	14.4	41.6	9.0	54.4
19	State Street Corp.	Diversified Financials	29,323	3,413	11.6	38.4	11.5	54.2
20	Electronic Arts	Software and Services	7,834	631	8.1	8.8	41.3	53.7
21	KeyCorp.	Banks	10,389	626	6.0	33.3	15.3	53.7
22	Starbucks Corp.	Consumer Services	57,835	1,137	2.0	38.5	10.6	53.1
23	Seagate Technology	Technology Hardware and Equipment	15,625	4,134	26.5	89.1	-19.1	53.0
24	CBS Corp.	Media	33,368	2,703	8.1	47.9	3.2	52.6
25	Pentair.	Capital Goods	12,933	874	6.8	35.5	12.5	52.5
26	Biogen Idec	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	57,222	1,496	2.6	51.8	0.5	52.5
27	SLM Corp.	Diversified Financials	10,861	929	8.6	34.7	12.2	51.2
28	Tyson Foods	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	9,961	878	8.8	30.4	15.8	51.1
29	Thermo Fisher Scientific	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	33,222	1,590	4.8	27.8	17.6	50.3
30	The Kroger Co.	Food and Staples Retailing	20,994	1,918	9.1	30.5	14.9	49.9
31	Viacom	Media	39,874	6,794	17.0	31.9	13.5	49.7
32	Life Technologies Corp.	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	12,920	843	6.5	32.0	13.3	49.5
33	The Interpublic Group of Cos.	Media	7,253	784	10.8	34.6	10.7	48.9
34	Mylan	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	15,574	1,500	10.3	30.4	13.8	48.3
35	Ingersoll-Rand	Capital Goods	18,912	2,217	11.7	33.7	10.9	48.3
36	priceline.com	Retailing	52,065	1,141	2.2	34.6	10.0	48.1
37	Lowe's Cos.	Retailing	50,076	7,693	15.4	51.0	-2.3	47.5
38	Principal Financial Group	Insurance	12,604	526	4.2	32.4	11.1	47.1
39	The Gap	Retailing	18,831	1,984	10.5	60.7	-8.5	47.1
40	Time Warner	Media	60,546	5,988	9.9	42.8	3.0	47.0
41	Halliburton Co.	Energy	43,989	4,478	10.2	2.9	41.9	46.1
42	Dover Corp.	Capital Goods	15,331	1,272	8.3	25.5	16.3	46.0
43	Northrop Grumman Corp.	Capital Goods	21,926	3,674	16.8	31.8	10.4	45.5
44	Discovery Communications	Media	29,635	2,160	7.3	43.3	1.4	45.2
45	Lockheed Martin Corp.	Capital Goods	40,706	2,761	6.8	33.7	8.5	45.1
46	Discover Financial Services	Diversified Financials	24,451	2,496	10.2	43.4	0.9	44.7
47	Amgen	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	84,319	10,737	12.7	43.9	0.3	44.3
48	American International Group	Insurance	71,795	13,262	18.5	36.3	5.8	44.3
49	St. Jude Medical	Healthcare Equipment and Services	15,405	1,601	10.4	10.7	28.5	42.3
50	Honeywell International	Capital Goods	65,173	1,162	1.8	32.7	7.2	42.2
Source: Fortuna Advisors Analysis using data from the Capital IQ database. Financial Data from Septmeber 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.