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%
201	Lorillard	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	16,744	1,343	8.0	16.1	0.2	16.3
202	ONEOK	Utilities	10,995	601	5.5	22.9	-5.4	16.2
203	Microsoft Corp.	Software and Services	277,221	10,643	3.8	15.6	0.3	16.0
204	Chevron Corp.	Energy	234,741	8,595	3.7	14.9	0.9	16.0
205	Target Corp.	Retailing	40,379	3,485	8.6	19.1	-2.6	16.0
206	Hewlett-Packard Co.	Technology Hardware and Equipment	40,339	3,151	7.8	-6.9	24.3	15.8
207	AutoZone	Retailing	14,497	2,750	19.0	19.2	-3.0	15.6
208	Wal-Mart Stores	Food and Staples Retailing	240,774	13,037	5.4	23.2	-6.5	15.2
209	Wisconsin Energy Corp.	Utilities	9,193	400	4.3	19.9	-4.0	15.1
210	Monsanto Co.	Materials	55,641	1,527	2.7	22.0	-5.7	15.1
211	Juniper Networks	Technology Hardware and Equipment	10,066	983	9.8	-6.8	23.0	14.5
212	Motorola Solutions	Technology Hardware and Equipment	15,786	4,136	23.2	18.6	-4.1	13.8
213	Marriott International	Consumer Services	12,752	1,989	15.6	22.0	-6.9	13.7
214	Nordstrom	Retailing	10,953	1,246	11.4	15.6	-1.9	13.4
215	Yum! Brands	Consumer Services	31,856	1,665	5.2	19.2	-5.5	12.6
216	Dr Pepper Snapple Group	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	9,124	760	8.3	13.3	-0.9	12.4
217	Praxair	Materials	35,443	1,260	3.6	11.5	0.3	11.8
218	Intuit	Software and Services	18,747	2,357	12.6	18.3	-5.5	11.8
219	Varian Medical Systems	Healthcare Equipment and Services	8,045	677	8.4	10.6	0.6	11.3
220	Schlumberger	Energy	116,916	2,136	1.8	3.7	7.0	11.0
221	QUALCOMM	Technology Hardware and Equipment	115,482	5,923	5.1	13.6	-2.4	10.8
222	Corning	Technology Hardware and Equipment	21,307	1,941	9.1	1.9	8.4	10.5
223	Sysco Corp.	Food and Staples Retailing	18,891	1,111	5.9	12.1	-1.5	10.4
224	Laboratory Corp. of America	Healthcare Equipment and Services	8,933	1,457	16.3	6.5	3.5	10.2
225	EMC Corp.	Technology Hardware and Equipment	53,187	2,750	5.2	4.9	4.8	10.0
226	Expeditors International of Washington	Transportation	9,094	431	4.7	-3.0	13.3	9.8
227	Ball Corp.	Materials	6,512	940	14.4	12.9	-2.8	9.8
228	Denbury Resources	Energy	6,851	674	9.8	4.0	5.5	9.7
229	Ralph Lauren Corp.	Consumer Durables and Apparel	14,905	759	5.1	14.1	-3.9	9.6
230	LSI Corp.	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	4,281	463	10.8	7.2	1.4	8.7
231	The Coca-Cola Co.	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	167,928	9,356	5.6	10.4	-1.6	8.7
232	Kohl's Corp.	Retailing	11,239	2,210	19.7	5.6	2.3	8.1
233	Norfolk Southern Corp.	Transportation	24,130	2,292	9.5	6.9	1.0	8.0
234	Exxon Mobil Corp.	Energy	378,716	39,186	10.3	11.8	-4.0	7.4
235	Monster Beverage Corp.	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	8,747	768	8.8	19.7	-10.6	7.1
236	McDonald's Corp.	Consumer Services	96,176	4,258	4.4	9.2	-2.2	6.7
237	Oracle Corp.	Software and Services	151,171	19,045	12.6	6.4	-0.5	5.9
238	The AES Corp.	Utilities	9,856	418	4.2	7.6	-1.7	5.8
239	Philip Morris International	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	140,150	12,046	8.6	17.8	-10.4	5.6
240	CF Industries	Materials	12,077	1,810	15.0	9.9	-4.1	5.3
241	Darden Restaurants	Consumer Services	6,044	337	5.6	4.3	1.0	5.3
242	Deere & Co.	Capital Goods	31,160	3,119	10.0	6.7	-1.3	5.3
243	AT&T	Telecommunication Services	179,618	23,886	13.3	15.1	-9.0	4.7
244	Autodesk	Software and Services	9,181	814	8.9	9.1	-4.1	4.6
245	Eli Lilly and Co.	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	55,043	1,919	3.5	24.4	-15.9	4.6
246	Quest Diagnostics	Healthcare Equipment and Services	9,385	1,244	13.3	9.2	-4.2	4.6
247	Iron Mountain	Commercial and Professional Services	5,164	475	9.2	0.6	3.6	4.2
248	Red Hat	Software and Services	8,734	396	4.5	12.1	-8.9	2.1
249	Catepillar	Capital Goods	54,011	2,000	3.7	-1.9	2.6	0.6
250	Abercrombie & Fitch Co.	Retailing	2,702	536	19.8	-17.8	21.4	-0.2
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.