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%
51	Flowserve Corp.	Capital Goods	8,773	1,251	14.3	38.4	2.6	42.1
52	Fidelity National Information Services	Software and Services	13,565	924	6.8	30.1	8.8	41.6
53	MasterCard	Software and Services	81,154	3,470	4.3	40.1	1.0	41.6
54	The Home Depot	Retailing	108,651	10,844	10.0	54.6	-8.6	41.3
55	AmerisourceBergen Corp.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	14,114	998	7.1	24.0	13.7	41.0
56	FLIR Systems	Technology Hardware and Equipment	4,461	384	8.6	9.3	28.9	41.0
57	Raytheon Co.	Capital Goods	24,854	1,468	5.9	36.2	3.2	40.6
58	BlackRock	Diversified Financials	46,083	2,731	5.9	31.8	6.6	40.5
59	The Goldman Sachs Group	Diversified Financials	74,121	10,323	13.9	18.8	18.1	40.3
60	Unum Group	Insurance	8,024	769	9.6	17.1	19.7	40.2
61	Avery Dennison Corp.	Materials	4,269	459	10.8	25.8	11.3	40.1
62	Southwest Airlines Co.	Transportation	10,282	966	9.4	22.6	14.2	40.1
63	Dun & Bradstreet Corp.	Commercial and Professional Services	4,029	930	23.1	26.0	11.1	40.0
64	Tesoro Corp.	Energy	6,061	427	7.0	50.3	-6.9	39.9
65	Visa	Software and Services	123,306	6,139	5.0	47.0	-5.1	39.5
66	Torchmark Corp.	Insurance	6,626	913	13.8	37.8	0.8	38.9
67	Aetna	Healthcare Equipment and Services	23,822	2,971	12.5	28.8	7.7	38.6
68	The Allstate Corp.	Insurance	23,427	2,393	10.2	41.7	-2.2	38.6
69	Time Warner Cable	Media	31,893	4,072	12.8	31.6	5.3	38.6
70	NetApp	Technology Hardware and Equipment	14,495	1,590	11.0	-0.6	39.0	38.1
71	Adobe Systems	Software and Services	26,087	1,105	4.2	34.4	2.6	37.8
72	Scripps Networks Interactive	Media	11,394	954	8.4	32.0	4.4	37.8
73	Prudential Financial	Insurance	36,261	1,441	4.0	36.5	8.9	37.8
74	Comerica	Banks	7,271	567	7.8	25.4	9.8	37.8
75	Ecolab	Materials	29,763	1,006	3.4	36.9	0.6	37.7
76	The Sherwin-Williams Co.	Materials	18,707	1,088	5.8	53.8	-10.6	37.5
77	Symantec Corp.	Software and Services	17,310	1,496	8.6	20.2	14.3	37.4
78	The Walt Disney Co.	Media	115,208	7,102	6.2	37.8	-0.4	37.2
79	Comcast Corp.	Media	117,572	4,991	4.2	42.0	-3.6	37.0
80	NVIDIA Corp.	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	9,003	950	10.6	4.5	30.9	36.7
81	Medtronic	Healthcare Equipment and Services	53,115	6.6	27.8	6.9	36.6	33.1%
82	Fifth Third Bancorp	Banks	16,026	1,314	8.2	34.4	1.5	36.4
83	Harris Corp.	Technology Hardware and Equipment	6,306	589	9.3	22.8	10.8	36.0
84	O'Reilly Automotive	Retailing	13,851	2,269	16.4	38.3	-2.2	35.3
85	Johnson & Johnson	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	244,299	28,152	11.5	21.9	10.9	35.2
86	Applied Materials	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	21,108	1,661	7.9	10.4	12.2	35.1
87	Computer Sciences Corp.	Software and Services	7,641	536	7.0	28.7	4.7	34.7
88	The Hershey Co.	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	20,645	843	4.1	30.4	3.1	34.5
89	Assurant	Insurance	4,056	881	21.7	28.0	4.8	34.1
90	McKesson Corp.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	29,332	2,544	8.7	26.5	5.8	33.9
91	Amphenol Corp.	Technology Hardware and Equipment	12,316	815	6.6	30.4	2.7	33.8
92	Citigroup	Diversified Financials	147,520	1,271	0.9	24.9	7.1	33.8
93	Aon	Insurance	22,887	2,150	9.4	21.9	9.7	33.6
94	Amazon.com	Retailing	142,840	1,237	0.9	18.5	12.6	33.5
95	JPMorgan Chase & Co.	Diversified Financials	194,796	7,006	3.6	24.9	6.9	33.5
96	Wells Fargo & Co.	Banks	194,796	8,550	3.9	32.1	0.9	33.4
97	Union Pacific Corp.	Transportation	72,054	3,288	4.6	32.8	0.4	33.3
98	Fiserv	Software and Services	13,146	1,138	8.7	31.0	1.7	33.2
99	Walgreen Co.	Food and Staples Retailing	50,841	1,806	3.6	19.0	11.9	33.1
100	Rockwell Automation	Capital Goods	14,829	662	4.5	23.9	7.3	32.9
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.