Buyback
Scorecard
Stock Buybacks Prepare for the Bear Market
Best & Worst Companies
Industry Comparisons
The table below ranks the 284 companies in the S&P 500 that bought back at least 4 percent of their shares from June 30, 2013, through June 30, 2015. 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—284
Company Industry Market
Capitalization $ Total
Buyback $ Total
Buyback
/ Market Cap Buyback
Strategy Buyback
Effectiveness Buyback ROI Average $49,337 $3,692 9.5% 17.8% -3.2% 14.2% Median $22,959 $1,908 7.6% 17.9% -3.7% 14.9% 1 Darden Restaurants Consumer Services 8,941 503 5.6 18.1 37.8 62.7 2 Humana Healthcare Equipment and Services 28,650 1,559 5.4 55.0 4.9 62.6 3 AmerisourceBergen Corp. Healthcare Equipment and Services 23,361 1,637 7.0 46.0 9.1 59.4 4 Southwest Airlines Co. Transportation 22,114 1,824 8.2 70.8 -8.1 57.0 5 The Kroger Co. Food and Staples Retailing 35,219 2,284 6.5 48.2 5.4 56.2 6 Anthem Healthcare Equipment and Services 43,421 4,964 11.4 48.6 4.6
55.5 7 Edwards Lifesciences Corp. Healthcare Equipment and Services 15,319 731 4.8 38.1 12.3 55.1 8 Tesoro Corp. Energy 10,621 468 4.4 26.8 20.2 52.4 9 Cigna Corp. Healthcare Equipment and Services 41,693 2,874 6.9 43.2 5.0 50.3 10 Red Hat Software and Services 13,931 595 4.3 25.6 19.0 49.5 11 Apple Technology Hardware and Equipment 722,577 71,910 10.0 47.3 1.3 49.3 12 O'Reilly Automotive Retailing 22,822 1,873 8.2 43.6 3.7 48.9 13 Aetna Healthcare Equipment and Services 44,509 2,330 5.2 41.1 5.3 48.5 14 CarMax Retailing 13,817 1,218 8.8 25.3 18.2 48.1 15 Walgreens Boots Alliance Food and Staples Retailing 92,103 1,347 1.5 35.8 6.9 45.1 16 HCA Holdings Healthcare Equipment and Services 37,587 3,190 8.5 43.9 0.3 44.4 17 UnitedHealth Group Healthcare Equipment and Services 116,132 6,797 5.9 40.1 3.0 44.3 18 Equifax Commercial and Professional Services 11,554 496 4.3 28.9 10.9 43.0 19 Expedia Retailing 13,949 750 5.4 33.3 6.7 42.2 20 Broadcom Corp. Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment 30,772 1,365 4.4 19.9 17.6 41.1 21 Hasbro Consumer Durables and Apparel 9,310 556 6.0 29.1 8.9 40.6 22 Biogen Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences 95,019 1,288 1.4 37.0 2.3 40.2 23 Starbucks Corp. Consumer Services 80,401 1,680 2.1 29.6 8.0 40.0 24 Leggett & Platt Consumer Durables and Apparel 6,708 351 5.2 24.1 12.5 39.7 25 Lowe's Cos. Retailing 62,462 8,217 13.2 35.2 2.7 38.8 26 Cintas Corp. Commercial and Professional Services 9,677 923 9.5 39.1 -0.6 38.3 27 Altera Corp. Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment 15,480 920 5.9 21.5 13.8 38.3 28 Dr Pepper Snapple Group Food, Beverage and Tobacco 13,977 925 6.6 30.5 5.7 37.9 29 The Walt Disney Co. Media 193,668 10,743 5.5 33.5 2.9 37.4 30 The Sherwin-Williams Co. Materials 25,628 2,705 10.6 26.7 8.3 37.2 31 CVS Health Corp. Food and Staples Retailing 118,200 10,163 8.6 34.8 1.4 36.6 32 Delphi Automotive Automobiles and Components 24,569 1,783 7.3 37.0 -1.3 35.3 33 Northrop Grumman Corp. Capital Goods 30,740 6,034 19.6 46.6 -7.9 35.0 34 McGraw Hill Financial Diversified Financials 27,493 1,114 4.1 41.7 -4.8 34.9 35 Marriott International Consumer Services 20,454 2,953 14.4 39.4 -3.2 34.9 36 Eli Lilly and Co. Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences 88,552 1,736 2.0 22.4 10.1 34.7 37 The Home Depot Retailing 144,355 14,285 9.9 24.7 6.8 33.1 38 Ross Stores Retailing 20,114 1,281 6.4 26.6 5.1 33.1 39 Fiserv Software and Services 19,613 1,789 9.1 35.4 -1.9 32.8 40 Moody's Corp. Diversified Financials 21,830 2,474 11.3 35.0 -2.0 32.2 41 Intuit Software and Services 27,779 2,844 10.2 31.3 0.7 32.2 42 NIKE Consumer Durables and Apparel 92,870 5,162 5.6 29.9 1.6 32.0 43 AutoZone Retailing 20,589 2,500 12.1 29.6 1.6 31.7 44 Celgene Corp. Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences 91,795 5,869 6.4 37.8 -4.7 31.3 45 The Western Union Co. Software and Services 10,497 893 8.5 19.4 9.5 30.7 46 Valero Energy Corp. Energy 31,840 2,427 7.6 27.3 1.4 29.1 47 Ball Corp. Materials 9,676 616 6.4 27.9 0.8 29.0 48 Cardinal Health Healthcare Equipment and Services 27,674 1,709 6.2 41.7 -9.1 28.8 49 Altria Group Food, Beverage and Tobacco 96,184 1,132 1.2 24.6 3.0 28.3 50 Activision Blizzard Software and Services 17,581 5,830 33.2 30.3 -1.9 27.9 Source: Fortuna Advisors Analysis using data from the Capital IQ database. Financial Data from June 2013 to June 2015. Includes the 488 members of the current S&P 500 that were public for the full period. Market Capitalization as of: 06/30/2015. Companies included here if $ Total Buyback / Market Capitalization is greater than 4% or if $ Total Buyback is greater than $1 billion.