The table below ranks the 270 companies in the S&P 500 that bought back at least 4 percent of their shares from March 31, 2012, through March 31, 2014. 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—270 |
|
| | Average | | $46,040 | $3,349 | 8.6% | 22.3% | 4.3% | 27.5% |
| | Median | | $21,057 | $1,530 | 7.2% | 22.4% | 3.4% | 27.4% |
| 1 | Keurig Green Mountain | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 17,084 | 1,146 | 6.7 | 32.4 | 94.3 | 157.2 |
| 2 | Gilead Sciences | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 108,972 | 1,679 | 1.5 | 81.4 | 5.0 | 90.4 |
| 3 | Southwest Airlines Co. | Transportation | 16,574 | 1,205 | 7.3 | 57.4 | 17.0 | 84.1 |
| 4 | Yahoo! | Software and Services | 36,237 | 5,891 | 16.3 | 57.7 | 13.2 | 78.6 |
| 5 | Boston Scientific Corp. | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 17,893 | 1,087 | 6.1 | 49.2 | 17.3 | 74.9 |
| 6 | Western Digital Corp. | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 21,694 | 1,990 | 9.2 | 53.2 | 13.5 |
73.9 | | 7 | Tyson Foods | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 14,976 | 1,025 | 6.8 | 41.5 | 22.0 | 72.6 |
| 8 | The Dow Chemical Co. | Materials | 58,769 | 1,557 | 2.6 | 22.1 | 37.1 | 67.4 |
| 9 | McKesson Corp. | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 40,634 | 1,344 | 3.3 | 46.9 | 13.3 | 66.4 |
| 10 | Lincoln National Corp. | Insurance | 13,362 | 942 | 7.1 | 47.0 | 12.9 | 66.0 |
| 11 | Lockheed Martin Corp. | Capital Goods | 52,117 | 3,616 | 6.9 | 41.1 | 16.5 | 64.3 |
| 12 | Mylan | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 18,161 | 2,000 | 11.0 | 46.9 | 11.3 | 63.4 |
| 13 | Northrop Grumman Corp. | Capital Goods | 26,741 | 3,994 | 14.9 | 44.9 | 12.0 | 62.3 |
| 14 | Delphi Automotive | Automobiles and Components | 20,792 | 1,013 | 4.9 | 49.7 | 8.1 | 61.9 |
| 15 | Ameriprise Financial | Diversified Financials | 20,979 | 3,129 | 14.9 | 44.9 | 11.5 | 61.5 |
| 16 | Celgene Corp. | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 56,680 | 6,208 | 11.0 | 46.5 | 9.6 | 60.7 |
| 17 | St. Jude Medical | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 18,564 | 2,001 | 10.8 | 28.6 | 24.9 | 60.6 |
| 18 | Adobe Systems | Software and Services | 32,721 | 1,625 | 5.0 | 41.5 | 12.8 | 59.6 |
| 19 | Seagate Technology | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 18,463 | 4,794 | 26.0 | 53.9 | 2.4 | 57.6 |
| 20 | Valero Energy Corp. | Energy | 28,287 | 1,329 | 4.7 | 53.6 | 1.2 | 55.4 |
| 21 | Flowserve Corp. | Capital Goods | 10,779 | 1,318 | 12.2 | 44.3 | 6.6 | 53.9 |
| 22 | Harris Corp. | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 7,813 | 662 | 8.5 | 34.9 | 13.8 | 53.5 |
| 23 | McGraw Hill Financial | Diversified Financials | 20,879 | 1,411 | 6.8 | 35.6 | 12.8 | 52.9 |
| 24 | SanDisk Corp. | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 18,309 | 1,873 | 10.2 | 23.1 | 24.1 | 52.7 |
| 25 | Gannett Co. | Media | 6,280 | 273 | 4.4 | 44.4 | 5.7 | 52.6 |
| 26 | H&R Block | Consumer Services | 8,279 | 346 | 4.2 | 39.9 | 7.8 | 50.8 |
| 27 | Hewlett-Packard Co. | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 61,326 | 3,417 | 5.6 | 8.5 | 38.9 | 50.7 |
| 28 | LyondellBasell Industries | Materials | 48,292 | 2,169 | 4.5 | 50.9 | -0.4 | 50.3 |
| 29 | Cardinal Health | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 23,995 | 989 | 4.1 | 31.9 | 13.4 | 49.6 |
| 30 | Legg Mason | Diversified Financials | 5,841 | 797 | 13.6 | 30.1 | 14.9 | 49.5 |
| 31 | Moody's Corp. | Diversified Financials | 16,973 | 1,291 | 7.6 | 44.6 | 3.0 | 48.9 |
| 32 | Assurant | Insurance | 4,663 | 728 | 15.6 | 28.5 | 15.6 | 48.5 |
| 33 | CBS Corp. | Media | 36,674 | 4,796 | 13.1 | 47.1 | 0.6 | 48.0 |
| 34 | Bank of America Corp. | Banks | 181,086 | 4,662 | 2.6 | 46.2 | 0.8 | 47.3 |
| 35 | Ingersoll-Rand | Capital Goods | 15,915 | 2,841 | 17.8 | 42.8 | 2.9 | 47.0 |
| 36 | MasterCard | Software and Services | 88,635 | 5,612 | 6.3 | 42.0 | 3.5 | 46.9 |
| 37 | Express Scripts Holding Co. | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 58,233 | 4,673 | 8.0 | 20.1 | 21.6 | 46.0 |
| 38 | TE Connectivity Ltd. | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 24,687 | 1,404 | 5.7 | 30.2 | 12.2 | 46.0 |
| 39 | AmerisourceBergen Corp. | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 15,033 | 922 | 6.1 | 35.3 | 7.8 | 45.9 |
| 40 | Time Warner Cable | Media | 38,061 | 4,262 | 11.2 | 38.6 | 3.9 | 44.1 |
| 41 | Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 86,080 | 2,024 | 2.4 | 31.7 | 9.2 | 43.9 |
| 42 | Fidelity National Information Services | Software and Services | 15,536 | 929 | 6.0 | 36.1 | 5.1 | 43.1 |
| 43 | L-3 Communications | Capital Goods | 10,218 | 1,478 | 14.5 | 32.6 | 7.5 | 42.5 |
| 44 | Visa | Software and Services | 136,773 | 8,357 | 6.1 | 42.9 | -0.3 | 42.5 |
| 45 | The Walt Disney Co. | Media | 140,287 | 8,687 | 6.2 | 39.1 | 2.1 | 42.0 |
| 46 | GameStop Corp. | Retailing | 4,760 | 546 | 11.5 | 31.5 | 7.9 | 41.9 |
| 47 | Computer Sciences Corp. | Software and Services | 8,861 | 804 | 9.1 | 46.0 | -3.0 | 41.6 |
| 48 | Rockwell Automation | Capital Goods | 17,285 | 834 | 4.8 | 24.4 | 13.7 | 41.5 |
| 49 | Agilent Technologies | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 18,645 | 1,144 | 6.1 | 17.0 | 20.9 | 41.5 |
| 50 | Aon | Insurance | 25,377 | 2,727 | 10.7 | 33.4 | 6.0 | 41.4 |
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