25 Companies That Could Still Buy Back Mountains Of Stock

In a massive new report, Arcana takes a close look at the companies that have been the most aggressive in buying back shares of their own stock.

The most recent complete data from Q3 2015 shows that the buyback frenzy among S&P 500 stocks continued its expansion in Q3, up 9.7 percent sequentially and 4.9 percent year-over-year to a record $245.7 billion.

Arcana expects this trend will continue in 2016. “Going forward for 2016, S&P 500 companies continue to have sufficient cash worth $1.78 trillion (non-financial companies), up from $1.73 trillion in mid-2015 to continue with theur generous trend of shareholder payout,” the firm says in its report.

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The S&P 500 buyback index once again outperformed its benchmark in 2015, and Arcana’s data suggests that trend will continue in 2016 as well.

Here’s a look at 25 top buyback stocks to watch in coming years:

• Exxon Mobil Corporation XOM- The company is currently authorized for about $1 billion in buybacks every quarter.
• Apple Inc. AAPL- The company has been one of the most aggressive in terms of buybacks, purchasing $34 billion of its own stock in the past year.
• Microsoft Corporation MSFT- Over the past decade, the company has $123.7 billion in buybacks.
• Gilead Sciences, Inc. GILD- The company has $15.8 billion in buybacks in the last five years.
• PepsiCo, Inc. PEP- The company has $13.2 billion remaining in its current buyback authorization.
• Merk & Co., Inc. MRK- The company has $7.6 billion in buybacks in the last 12 months alone.
• Intel Corporation INTC- The company has $34.1 billion in buybacks over the past five years.
• CVS Health Corp CVS- The company is authorized for another $9.8 billion in buybacks under its current program.
• Oracle Corporation ORCL- The company has more than $47.2 billion in buybacks over the last 10 years.
• United Technologies Corporation UTX- The company bought back $4.2 billion in stock in the past year alone.
• QUALCOMM, Inc. QCOM- The company has $15.2 billion in buybacks in the past five years.
• Wells Fargo & Co WFC- Despite the most devastating financial crisis since the Great Depression, the company has $37.5 billion in buybacks in the past decade.
• Boeing Co BA- The company has another $7.5 billion in buybacks authorized under its current program.
• Mondelez International Inc. MDLZ- The company repurchased $2.7 billion of its own stock in the past 12 months.
• Comcast Corporation CMCSA- The company repurchased $14.3 billion in stock in the past five years.
• American International Group Inc AIG- Despite being at the epicenter of the Financial Crisis, the company managed $27.0 billion in buybacks in the past 10 years.
• EMC Corporation EMC- The company has $6.1 billion in buybacks authorized under its current program.
• Illinois Tool Works Inc. ITW- The company bought back $2.9 billion in the past year.
• Pfizer Inc. PFE- The company has more than $41.6 billion in buybacks in the past five years.
• JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM- The company is another name that has thrived following the Financial Crisis and has bought back more than $36.2 billion in stock in the past 10 years.
• Procter & Gamble Co PG- The company has $5.0 billion in buyback authorization remaining in its current program.
• Lyondell Basell Industries NV LYB- The company has $4.1 billion in buybacks in the past year.
• General Motors Company GM- After its post-crisis bankruptcy restructuring, the company has re-purchased more than $12.3 billion in stock in the past five years.
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co HPE- Prior to its recent split, the company had a staggering $64.9 billion in buybacks over the past decade.
• Yahoo! Inc. YHOO- While the company tries to figure out how to turn around its core business in the next few years, it has $2.7 billion of authorized buybacks remaining in its current program.
• Disclosure: the author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.