| 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. | ||||||||
