S&P 500 Stock Buybacks Increase In Second Quarter

NEW YORK, Sept. 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- S&P Dow Jones Indices announced today that preliminary results show that S&P 500® stock buybacks, or share repurchases, increased 18.1% to $118.1 billion during the second quarter of 2013, up from the $100.0 billion spent on share repurchases during the first quarter of 2013. Compared to the $111.7 billion spent in the second quarter of 2012, buybacks are up 5.6%.

For the 12 month period (ending June 2013), S&P 500 issues increased their buyback expenditures by 4.7% to $420.9 billion from the $402.0 billion posted in the prior 12 month period. The high mark was reached in 2007, when companies spent $589.1 billion over the 12 month period, with the recession low point being $24.2 billion in the second quarter of 2009.

"The second quarter breaks into two stories – one with and the other without Apple," says Howard Silverblatt, Senior Index Analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices. "Apple spent $16 billion on buybacks in the second quarter, accounting for 13.5% of all buybacks in the period and setting a new index record for quarterly buybacks by surpassing International Businesses Machines' Q2 2007 expenditure of $15.7 billion." 

"Excluding Apple, the 18.1% Q2 increase in buybacks becomes 2.0%. If we adjust for the average stock price in Q2 being 6.3% higher than in Q1, the takeaway is that less shares were actually repurchased in Q2 than Q1, even as the headline, legitimately, reads 18%," adds Silverblatt.

"Overall, companies continued to protect their earnings from dilution due to option execution with the actual share count slightly ticking down," notes Silverblatt. "The data, however, shows that there was a wide mix – 242 issues increasing their diluted share count compared to 225 issues reducing them. Significant changes (generally considered 1% or greater) favored reductions, as 90 issues reduced their count by at least 1%, with 58 issues increasing them at least 1%."

The Information Technology sector, with the help of Apple, easily maintained its dominance of buybacks, accounting for 31.5% of all expenditures, up from 19.6% in the first quarter. The Industrials sector increased its expenditures and percentage of buybacks, accounting for 12.2% of expenditures, up from 9.0% in the first quarter. Of the 309 which reported buybacks, 252 companies paid a cash dividend, with their 12 month buybacks 42% higher than dividends.

On an issue basis, after Apple, Merck made the second largest expenditure, at $5.5 billion, followed by Exxon Mobile with $4.0 billion, General Electric with $3.9 billion and International Business Machines with $3.6 billion.

"Q3 share prices are running 3.7% higher than Q2 and 19.2% higher than Q3 of last year. Additionally, market uncertainty has increased via the Fed expectation and events in the Middle East, which may be testing corporate willingness to go beyond the necessary EPS protection to do share count reduction," concluded Silverblatt.

Historical S&P 500 buyback data can be found at: www.marketattributes.standardandpoors.com.

About S&P Dow Jones Indices
S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, a part of McGraw Hill Financial, is the world's largest, global resource for index-based concepts, data and research. Home to iconic financial market indicators, such as the S&P 500® and the Dow Jones Industrial Average™, S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC has over 115 years of experience constructing innovative and transparent solutions that fulfill the needs of investors. More assets are invested in products based upon our indices than any other provider in the world. With over 830,000 indices covering a wide range of asset classes across the globe, S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC defines the way investors measure and trade the markets. To learn more about our company, please visit www.spdji.com.

Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC, a part of McGraw Hill Financial. Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC ("Dow Jones").  These trademarks have been licensed to S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC. It is not possible to invest directly in an index. S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, Dow Jones, S&P and their respective affiliates (collectively "S&P Dow Jones Indices") do not sponsor, endorse, sell, or promote any investment fund or other investment vehicle that is offered by third parties and that seeks to provide an investment return based on the performance of any index. This document does not constitute an offer of services in jurisdictions where S&P Dow Jones Indices does not have the necessary licenses. S&P Dow Jones Indices receives compensation in connection with licensing its indices to third parties.

SOURCE S&P Dow Jones Indices

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