Buyback Scorecard The Risk in No-Risk Stock BuybacksBest & Worst CompaniesIndustry Comparisons

The table below ranks the 299 companies in the S&P 500 that bought back at least 4 percent or more than $1 billion of their shares from December 31, 2013 to December 31, 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—299
	Company	Industry	Market Capitalization	$ Total Buyback	$ Total Buyback / Market Cap	Buyback Strategy	Buyback Effectiveness	Buyback ROI
	Average		$48,969	$3,699	9.2%	20.8%	-3.9%	16.3%
	Median		$24,408	$1,949	7.7%	20.1%	-3.6%	16.5%
1	Tesoro Corp.	Energy	12,686	594	4.7	46.7	7.1	57.1
2	NVIDIA Corp.	Semi-conductors and Semi-conductor Equipment	17,732	1,266	7.1	42.0	4.0	47.7
3	O'Reilly Automotive	Retailing	24,997	2,003	8.0	43.4	2.1	46.4
4	NIKE	Consumer Durables and Apparel	106,524	5,474	5.1	31.3	10.3	44.8
5	Starbucks Corp.	Consumer Services	89,133	2,402	2.7	25.8	13.9	43.3
6	The Kroger Co.	Food and Staples Retailing	40,773	1,986	4.9	38.7	3.2	43.1
7	VeriSign	Software and Services	9,741	1,527	15.7	23.1	15.0	41.5
8	Southwest Airlines Co.	Transportation	28,004	2,135	7.6	60.5	-12.4	40.6
9	Dr Pepper Snapple Group	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	17,605	921	5.2	41.0	-2.0	38.1
10	The Home Depot	Retailing	167,677	14,000	8.3	30.5	4.8	36.8
11	Nasdaq	Diversified Financials	9,554	555	5.8	26.7	7.9	36.7
12	Masco Corp.	Capital Goods	9,522	414	4.3	25.2	8.3	35.6
13	Fiserv	Software and Services	20,902	2,413	11.5	31.9	2.0	34.6
14	Cigna Corp.	Healthcare Equipment and Services	37,695	2,283	6.1	29.7	3.4	34.1
15	Darden Restaurants	Consumer Services	8,155	503	6.2	16.6	14.8	33.8
16	Northrop Grumman Corp.	Capital Goods	34,436	5,850	17.0	33.5	0.0	33.5
17	Valero Energy Corp.	Energy	34,047	3,905	11.5	30.2	2.3	33.2
18	Altria Group	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	114,131	1,493	1.3	31.1	0.5	31.8
19	Red Hat	Software and Services	15,138	683	4.5	30.9	0.3	31.2
20	Assurant	Insurance	5,303	508	9.6	18.1	9.8	29.7
21	AutoZone	Retailing	22,412	2,479	11.1	30.4	-1.1	29.0
22	Lowe's Cos.	Retailing	69,585	7,830	11.3	25.6	2.6	28.9
23	The Clorox Co.	Household and Personal Products	16,373	708	4.3	20.9	6.4	28.7
24	Costco Wholesale Corp.	Food and Staples Retailing	71,024	1,018	1.4	18.2	8.5	28.2
25	Hasbro	Consumer Durables and Apparel	8,395	547	6.5	23.3	4.0	28.2
26	UnitedHealth Group	Healthcare Equipment and Services	112,124	5,208	4.6	29.6	-1.1	28.2
27	Cintas Corp.	Commercial and Professional Services	9,830	1,161	11.8	32.0	-3.0	28.0
28	Visa	Software and Services	188,406	8,044	4.3	24.9	2.4	27.9
29	Microsoft Corp.	Software and Services	443,169	25,893	5.8	23.7	3.2	27.7
30	Newell Rubbermaid	Consumer Durables and Apparel	11,778	545	4.6	23.7	2.8	27.1
31	Aetna	Healthcare Equipment and Services	37,701	1,514	4.0	30.1	-2.6	26.7
32	Eli Lilly and Co.	Pharma- ceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	89,368	1,550	1.7	32.7	-4.5	26.7
33	The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.	Automobiles and Components	8,785	416	4.7	22.8	2.3	25.7
34	eBay	Software and Services	32,994	5,150	15.6	18.4	5.5	24.9
35	Humana	Healthcare Equipment and Services	26,459	1,274	4.8	34.9	-7.4	24.9
36	Mondelez International	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	71,258	5,322	7.5	17.9	5.9	24.8
37	Adobe Systems	Software and Services	46,857	1,225	2.6	27.5	-2.1	24.8
38	McDonald's Corp.	Consumer Services	108,480	9,298	8.6	11.6	11.6	24.6
39	Tyson Foods	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	21,108	1,018	4.8	26.7	-1.8	24.4
40	Lockheed Martin Corp.	Capital Goods	66,729	4,971	7.4	30.5	-4.7	24.4
41	Avery Dennison Corp.	Materials	5,708	494	8.7	18.9	4.6	24.3
42	Accenture	Software and Services	65,617	4,949	7.5	20.9	2.8	24.3
43	H&R Block	Consumer Services	7,859	1,915	24.4	14.7	7.4	23.1
44	Delta Air Lines	Transportation	39,866	3,300	8.3	36.9	-10.2	22.9
45	Ross Stores	Retailing	21,793	1,358	6.2	17.8	4.2	22.7
46	Intercontinental Exchange	Diversified Financials	30,429	1,395	4.6	11.9	9.5	22.5
47	Walgreens Boots Alliance	Food and Staples Retailing	92,449	2,018	2.2	23.1	-0.4	22.5
48	The Walt Disney Co.	Media	173,716	13,256	7.6	28.7	-5.1	22.2
49	Juniper Networks	Technology Hardware and Equipment	10,650	3,416	32.1	22.1	-1.2	20.7
50	The Hartford Financial Services Group	Insurance	17,802	2,245	12.6	17.4	2.4	20.3
* Company has yet to report latest quarter. Source: Fortuna Advisors Analysis using data from the Capital IQ database. Financial Data from December 2013 to December 2015. Includes the 485 members of the current S&P 500 that were public for the full period. Market Capitalization as of: 12/31/2015. Companies Included here if $ Total Buyback / Market Capitalization is greater than 4% or if $ Total Buyback is greater than $1 billion.