The table below ranks the 274 companies in the S&P 500 that bought back at least 4 percent of their shares from June 30, 2012, through June 30, 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 |
|
| Average | | $47,210 | $3,341 | 8.5% | 24.7% | 0.0% | 24.5% |
| Median | | $21,878 | $1,619 | 7.4% | 24.9% | 0.1% | 24.0% |
| 1 | Keurig Green Mountain | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 20,279 | 1,262 | 6.2 | 88.3 | 15.2 | 117.0 |
| 2 | Southwest Airlines Co. | Transportation | 18,583 | 1,220 | 6.6 | 73.5 | 10.5 | 91.6 |
| 3 | SanDisk Corp. | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 23,623 | 2,037 | 8.6 | 57.8 | 9.9 | 73.5 |
| 4 | Tyson Foods | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 13,185 | 955 | 7.2 | 47.9 | 11.1 | 64.4 |
| 5 | Western Digital Corp. | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 21,697 | 1,658 | 7.6 | 59.8 | 2.5 | 63.9 |
| 6 | Hewlett-Packard Co. | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 63,027 | 3,634 | 5.8 | 24.0 | 32.1 |
63.7 | | 7 | LyondellBasell Industries | Materials | 51,490 | 2,169 | 4.2 | 62.6 | -0.9 | 61.2 |
| 8 | Gilead Sciences | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 127,323 | 2,638 | 2.1 | 76.7 | -9.6 | 59.7 |
| 9 | Boston Scientific Corp. | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 16,891 | 975 | 5.8 | 48.6 | 6.5 | 58.3 |
| 10 | Delphi Automotive | Automobiles and Components | 20,874 | 1,068 | 5.1 | 53.8 | 1.3 | 55.7 |
| 11 | Corning | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 28,721 | 3,977 | 13.8 | 29.8 | 20.0 | 55.7 |
| 12 | Halliburton Co. | Energy | 59,969 | 4,889 | 8.2 | 45.3 | 6.9 | 55.4 |
| 13 | McKesson Corp. | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 43,125 | 1,393 | 3.2 | 42.0 | 8.8 | 54.5 |
| 14 | The Kroger Co. | Food and Staples Retailing | 23,974 | 2,142 | 8.9 | 45.7 | 5.8 | 54.1 |
| 15 | General Dynamics Corp. | Capital Goods | 39,960 | 3,431 | 8.6 | 34.8 | 14.2 | 54.0 |
| 16 | Raytheon Co. | Capital Goods | 28,861 | 1,088 | 3.8 | 40.4 | 9.3 | 53.5 |
| 17 | Lockheed Martin Corp. | Capital Goods | 50,723 | 3,559 | 7.0 | 43.2 | 7.0 | 53.3 |
| 18 | MeadWestvaco Corp. | Materials | 7,430 | 431 | 5.8 | 26.3 | 20.5 | 52.2 |
| 19 | Legg Mason | Diversified Financials | 5,983 | 724 | 12.1 | 40.5 | 8.2 | 52.0 |
| 20 | Mylan | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 19,270 | 1,500 | 7.8 | 51.1 | 0.3 | 51.5 |
| 21 | Northrop Grumman Corp. | Capital Goods | 25,617 | 4,433 | 17.3 | 45.2 | 3.1 | 49.7 |
| 22 | Ameriprise Financial | Diversified Financials | 22,786 | 3,136 | 13.8 | 52.0 | -2.0 | 48.9 |
| 23 | Valero Energy Corp. | Energy | 26,735 | 1,288 | 4.8 | 65.3 | -10.0 | 48.7 |
| 24 | The Dow Chemical Co. | Materials | 61,961 | 2,407 | 3.9 | 29.2 | 14.7 | 48.2 |
| 25 | Lincoln National Corp. | Insurance | 13,567 | 942 | 6.9 | 50.2 | -1.7 | 47.6 |
| 26 | Seagate Technology | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 18,555 | 3,566 | 19.2 | 47.3 | -0.4 | 46.6 |
| 27 | Yahoo! | Software and Services | 35,369 | 6,154 | 17.4 | 50.8 | -2.8 | 46.6 |
| 28 | Harris Corp. | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 8,067 | 724 | 9.0 | 37.3 | 6.7 | 46.5 |
| 29 | Adobe Systems | Software and Services | 35,990 | 1,550 | 4.3 | 41.2 | 2.6 | 44.9 |
| 30 | WellPoint | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 30,096 | 4,571 | 15.2 | 25.0 | 15.6 | 44.5 |
| 31 | St. Jude Medical | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 19,683 | 2,001 | 10.2 | 32.4 | 9.1 | 44.5 |
| 32 | Dover Corp. | Capital Goods | 15,142 | 1,328 | 8.8 | 36.3 | 5.0 | 43.1 |
| 33 | Allergan | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 50,353 | 1,845 | 3.7 | 30.1 | 9.5 | 42.6 |
| 34 | Humana | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 19,769 | 923 | 4.7 | 21.9 | 16.9 | 42.4 |
| 35 | Assurant | Insurance | 4,696 | 628 | 13.4 | 38.0 | 3.0 | 42.2 |
| 36 | L-3 Communications | Capital Goods | 10,413 | 1,501 | 14.4 | 36.2 | 3.7 | 41.2 |
| 37 | Marriott International | Consumer Services | 18,766 | 2,086 | 11.1 | 26.3 | 11.3 | 40.6 |
| 38 | McGraw Hill Financial | Diversified Financials | 22,601 | 1,609 | 7.1 | 36.5 | 2.9 | 40.6 |
| 39 | Moody's Corp. | Diversified Financials | 18,733 | 4,449 | 7.7 | 48.7 | -5.7 | 40.2 |
| 40 | Lorillard | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 22,104 | 1,330 | 6.0 | 22.0 | 14.7 | 39.9 |
| 41 | V.F. Corp. | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 27,110 | 1,019 | 3.8 | 33.8 | 4.4 | 39.7 |
| 42 | TE Connectivity | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 25,276 | 1,464 | 5.8 | 37.0 | 2.0 | 39.7 |
| 43 | Xerox Corp. | Software and Services | 14,457 | 1,870 | 12.9 | 28.7 | 8.0 | 39.0 |
| 44 | Aetna | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 28,978 | 2,640 | 9.1 | 33.8 | 3.9 | 38.9 |
| 45 | FLIR Systems | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 4,919 | 329 | 6.7 | 28.6 | 8.1 | 38.9 |
| 46 | Apple | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 560,337 | 50,860 | 9.1 | 3.5 | 34.3 | 38.9 |
| 47 | DIRECTV | Media | 42,694 | 7,949 | 18.6 | 31.6 | 5.5 | 38.9 |
| 48 | Flowserve Corp. | Capital Goods | 10,211 | 950 | 9.3 | 45.4 | -4.5 | 38.9 |
| 49 | Cardinal Health | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 23,324 | 1,123 | 4.8 | 30.7 | 6.0 | 38.6 |
| 50 | NVIDIA Corp. | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 10,345 | 1,487 | 14.4 | 22.0 | 13.6 | 38.5 |
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