| Buyback Scorecard CFOs Share Their Stock Buyback Secrets Best and Worst Programs Industry Comparisons |
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 | ||||||||
| Company | Industry | Market Capitalization | $ Total Buyback | $ Total Buyback / Market Cap | Buyback Strategy | Buyback Effectiveness | Buyback ROI | |
| 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% | ||
| 51 | Unum Group | Insurance | 9,161 | 739 | 8.1 | 24.0 | 13.8 | 41.1 |
| 52 | KeyCorp. | Banks | 12,665 | 855 | 6.8 | 31.0 | 7.4 | 40.7 |
| 53 | The Kroger Co. | Food and Staples Retailing | 22,174 | 1,525 | 6.9 | 31.1 | 7.0 | 40.2 |
| 54 | General Dynamics Corp. | Capital Goods | 37,478 | 2,686 | 7.2 | 24.1 | 12.7 | 39.8 |
| 55 | Morgan Stanley | Diversified Financials | 61,481 | 1,399 | 2.3 | 29.8 | 7.6 | 39.6 |
| 56 | Applied Materials | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 24,724 | 1,261 | 5.1 | 25.4 | 11.3 | 39.6 |
| 57 | Corning | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 28,957 | 4,116 | 14.2 | 20.5 | 15.9 | 39.6 |
| 58 | Viacom | Media | 37,232 | 7,201 | 19.3 | 36.0 | 2.6 | 39.6 |
| 59 | Safeway | Food and Staples Retailing | 8,507 | 948 | 11.1 | 30.9 | 6.6 | 39.5 |
| 60 | E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. | Materials | 61,482 | 2,061 | 3.4 | 16.5 | 19.5 | 39.1 |
| 61 | Comerica | Banks | 9,432 | 643 | 6.8 | 28.9 | 7.8 | 38.9 |
| 62 | Autodesk | Autodesk | 11,173 | 858 | 7.7 | 18.1 | 17.0 | 38.2 |
| 63 | Fifth Third Bancorp | Banks | 19,481 | 2,069 | 10.6 | 29.6 | 6.6 | 38.2 |
| 64 | Aetna | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 27,192 | 2,957 | 10.9 | 26.5 | 8.9 | 37.8 |
| 65 | Prudential Financial | Insurance | 39,191 | 1,413 | 3.6 | 23.9 | 11.2 | 37.8 |
| 66 | BlackRock | Diversified Financials | 53,061 | 3,201 | 6.0 | 29.7 | 6.2 | 37.8 |
| 67 | Twenty-First Century Fox | Media | 71,470 | 5,881 | 8.2 | 39.7 | -1.5 | 37.6 |
| 68 | Dover Corp. | Capital Goods | 13,901 | 1,457 | 10.5 | 23.8 | 11.2 | 37.6 |
| 69 | FLIR Systems | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 5,072 | 353 | 7.0 | 14.6 | 20.1 | 37.6 |
| 70 | Comcast Corp. | Media | 129,713 | 5,000 | 3.9 | 39.2 | -1.2 | 37.5 |
| 71 | O’Reilly Automotive | Retailing | 15,788 | 2,246 | 14.2 | 29.4 | 6.1 | 37.3 |
| 72 | Juniper Networks | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 12,909 | 2,078 | 16.1 | 8.6 | 26.4 | 37.3 |
| 73 | Fiserv | Software and Services | 14,427 | 1,304 | 9.0 | 32.6 | 3.3 | 37.0 |
| 74 | Avery Dennison Corp. | Materials | 4,863 | 506 | 10.4 | 34.2 | 2.0 | 36.9 |
| 75 | Amgen | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 93,123 | 4,064 | 4.4 | 36.5 | 0.1 | 36.6 |
| 76 | The Interpublic Group of Cos. | Media | 7,268 | 833 | 11.5 | 27.2 | 7.3 | 36.5 |
| 77 | American Express Co. | Diversified Financials | 95,397 | 8,685 | 9.1 | 32.0 | 3.3 | 36.4 |
| 78 | Coca-Cola Enterprises | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 12,105 | 1,931 | 16.0 | 31.7 | 3.6 | 36.4 |
| 79 | Texas Instruments | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 51,015 | 5,088 | 10.0 | 19.4 | 13.9 | 36.0 |
| 80 | NVIDIA Corp. | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 9,926 | 1,487 | 15.0 | 8.4 | 25.4 | 35.9 |
| 81 | Huntington Bancshares | Banks | 8,385 | 410 | 4.9 | 29.2 | 5.1 | 35.7 |
| 82 | CVS Caremark Corp. | Food and Staples Retailing | 88,260 | 8,297 | 9.4 | 29.1 | 4.8 | 35.3 |
| 83 | Johnson Controls | Automobiles and Components | 31,422 | 1,618 | 5.1 | 24.1 | 8.9 | 35.1 |
| 84 | Discover Financial Services | Diversified Financials | 27,401 | 2.308 | 8.4 | 40.4 | -3.8 | 35.0 |
| 85 | Lowe’s Cos. | Retailing | 50,367 | 7,224 | 14.3 | 33.5 | 0.9 | 34.8 |
| 86 | Honeywell International | Capital Goods | 72,538 | 1,710 | 2.4 | 27.9 | 5.3 | 34.8 |
| 87 | Capital Goods | Energy | 50,108 | 4,935 | 9.8 | 24.0 | 8.6 | 34.8 |
| 88 | Tractor Supply Co. | Retailing | 9,798 | 487 | 5.0 | 31.6 | 2.3 | 34.6 |
| 89 | Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide | Consumer Services | 15,277 | 636 | 4.2 | 22.4 | 9.9 | 34.6 |
| 90 | Cintas Corp. | Commercial and Professional Services | 7,156 | 510 | 7.1 | 26.0 | 6.7 | 34.5 |
| 91 | Macy’s | Retailing | 21,635 | 2,722 | 12.6 | 25.5 | 7.1 | 34.4 |
| 92 | Xerox Corp. | Software and Services | 13,390 | 1,973 | 14.7 | 19.2 | 12.8 | 34.4 |
| 93 | PPG Industries | Materials | 26,796 | 1,200 | 4.5 | 47.1 | -8.7 | 34.4 |
| 94 | Starbucks Corp. | Consumer Services | 55,468 | 1,412 | 2.5 | 23.8 | 8.4 | 34.2 |
| 95 | Marathon Petroleum Corp. | Energy | 25,490 | 3,982 | 15.6 | 50.0 | -10.7 | 34.0 |
| 96 | Union Pacific Corp. | Transportation | 85,215 | 3,903 | 4.6 | 29.0 | 3.8 | 33.8 |
| 97 | Expedia | Retailing | 9,386 | 643 | 6.8 | 51.6 | -11.8 | 33.7 |
| 98 | DIRECTV | Media | 38,971 | 8,810 | 22.6 | 26.7 | 5.2 | 33.3 |
| 99 | Nike | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 65,402 | 3,206 | 4.9 | 21.4 | 9.7 | 33.3 |
| 100 | Torchmark Corp. | Insurance | 6,961 | 988 | 14.2 | 28.9 | 3.4 | 33.3 |
| Source: Fortuna Advisors Analysis using data from the Capital IQ database. Financial Data from March 2012 to March 2014. Includes the 490 members of the current S&P 500 that were public for the full period. Market Capitalization as of: 03/31/2014. Companies Included here if $ Total Buyback / Market Capitalization is greater than 4% or if $ Total Buyback is greater than $1 Billion. | ||||||||
