Buyback Scorecard The Risk in No-Risk Stock BuybacksThe S&P 500 as Stock Repurchasers Industry Comparisons

The table below ranks the 299 companies in the S&P 500 that bought back at least 4 percent of their shares from September 30, 2013, through September 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.

 The Best and Worst Corporate
Stock Buyback Programs

Best
	Company	Industry	Market Cap ($ Millions)	Total Buyback ($ Millions)	$ Total Buyback as % Market Cap	Buyback Strategy	Buyback Effectiveness	Buyback ROI
1	Tesoro Corp.	Energy	12,686	594	4.7	46.7	7.1	57.1
2	NVIDIA Corp.	Semiconductors and Semiconductor 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
Worst
	Company	Industry	Market Cap ($ Millions)	Total Buyback ($ Millions)	$ Total Buyback as % Market Cap	Buyback Strategy	Buyback Effectiveness	Buyback ROI
1	NRG Energy	Utilities	3,698	476	12.9	(31.2)	(59.1)	(71.9)
2	Mallinckrodt	Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences	8,653	384	4.4	18.9	(61.6)	(54.3)
3	Murphy Oil Corp.	Energy	3,862	625	16.2	(32.5)	(18.1)	(44.8)
4	Quanta Services	Capital Goods	3,235	1,700	52.5	(14.4)	(32.9)	(42.6)
5	Seagate Technology	Technology Hardware and Equipment	10,963	2,358	21.5	(8.9)	(34.8)	(40.6)
6	Michael Kors Holdings	Consumer Durables and Apparel	7,373	1,448	19.6	(27.7)	(17.7)	(40.5)
7	National Oilwell Varco	Energy	12,584	3,000	23.8	(26.4)	(18.4)	(40.0)
8	Micron Technology	Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment	14,659	1,053	7.2	(9.3)	(32.8)	(39.0)
9	Keurig Green Mountain	Food, Beverage and Tobacco	13,423	2,198	16.4	(3.3)	(35.8)	(38.0)
10	Apache Corp.	Energy	16,810	1,864	11.1	(26.6)	(11.5)	(35.1)
Top Manufacturers of EPS (*)
	Company	Industry	Market Cap ($ Millions)	Total Buyback ($ Millions)	$ Total Buyback as % Market Cap	Buyback Strategy	Buyback Effectiveness	Buyback ROI
1	Motorola Solutions	Technology Hardware and Equipment	11,914	5,723	48.0	6.8	8.0	15.3
2	Northrop Grumman Corp.	Capital Goods	34,436	5,850	17.0	33.5	(0.0)	33.5
3	The Travelers Cos.	Insurance	34,334	6,556	19.1	15.4	1.5	17.1
4	Citrix Systems	Software and Services	11,637	2,397	20.6	13.5	4.2	18.4
5	Xerox Corp.	Software and Services	10,762	2,373	22.1	(1.3)	(13.2)	(14.3)
6	Whole Foods Market	Food and Staples Retailing	11,432	1,663	14.5	(25.9)	3.4	(23.3)
7	W.W. Grainger	Capital Goods	12,720	1,925	15.1	(9.5)	(8.9)	(17.5)
8	TE Connectivity	Technology Hardware and Equipment	24,959	2,640	10.6	12.9	(5.3)	6.8
9	Torchmark Corp.	Insurance	7,050	672	9.5	9.4	(1.1)	8.2
10	3M Co.	Capital Goods	92,751	10,890	11.7	12.6	(4.9)	7.0
* Manufacturers of EPS considers S&P threshold companies with low (negative) Earnings Growth but high reduction in share count to generate positive EPS Growth. ** EPS calculation = Quarterly Reported Net Income / Actual Quarter's Reported Total Shares Outstanding. 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. Model Portfolios to Deliver Alternative Asset Exposure Sponsored by BlackRock April 29, 2025 Companies Included here if $ Total Buyback / Market Capitalization is greater than 4%