Dow Jones
IndexDow Jones buyback yield: 1.35%
Dow Jones companies spent $337B repurchasing their own stock over the last reported twelve months — cash returned in the form of buybacks worth 1.35% of their combined $24.89T of market value, and 62% of all the cash they returned to shareholders. Net of the $4B they raised issuing new shares, the yield is 1.34%. Add the 0.83% dividend yield and you get the total shareholder yield of 2.18%.
Who is doing the buying back#
Dow Jones members by trailing-twelve-month repurchase spending. The 10 biggest account for 84% of the index total — the aggregate above is mostly these companies. Spending big is not the same as retiring much of yourself: the shares-retired column is each company's own share count a year ago against today.
| Company | Buybacks (TTM) | Shares retired (1y) | Share count | Cash ÷ cap | Index weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAPL | $82B | 1.66% | 14.84B → 14.59B | 1.84% | 3.36% |
| NVDA | $45B | 0.82% | 24.40B → 24.20B | 0.83% | 2.47% |
| CRM | $37B | 14.34% | 956M → 819M | 23.16% | 2.19% |
| JPM | $32B | 3.33% | 2.75B → 2.66B | 3.28% | 3.88% |
| MSFT | $22B | 0.10% | 7.43B → 7.43B | 0.61% | 5.05% |
| V | $21B | 2.17% | 1.99B → 1.94B | 3.15% | 4.09% |
| GS | $14B | 3.82% | 303M → 291M | 4.63% | 11.45% |
| CVX | $11B | -14.35% | 1.73B → 1.98B | 2.82% | 2.40% |
| DIS | $8B | 3.98% | 1.80B → 1.73B | 4.47% | 1.29% |
| JNJ | $8B | -0.06% | 2.41B → 2.41B | 1.29% | 2.85% |
| AXP | $7B | 2.96% | 696M → 675M | 3.23% | 4.00% |
| CAT | $7B | 1.88% | 468M → 460M | 1.83% | 11.03% |
| CSCO | $6B | 0.47% | 3.96B → 3.94B | 1.33% | 1.13% |
| WMT | $6B | 0.28% | 7.98B → 7.96B | 0.61% | 1.64% |
| TRV | $5B | 7.36% | 225M → 209M | 6.93% | 3.78% |
“Shares retired” is the realized yield — the change in the company's own share count over the last year, which is what an owner actually gains. It is the honest column: the “cash ÷ cap” figure beside it divides money spent by what the company is worth now, so it flatters anyone whose stock fell while they were buying — CVX spent $11B (2.82% of today's market value) but retired -14.35% of its shares (1.73B → 1.98B). A negative figure means the share count grew, usually stock issued to fund an acquisition. Index weight is the tracking fund's filed weight from its latest SEC holdings disclosure, not rolled forward on price. See the full biggest companies by buybacks list for the market-wide ranking.
Shares actually retired#
The headline 1.35% measures cash returned to shareholders in the form of buybacks — dollars spent on repurchases over market value. That is the right question at the index level, it is what index providers publish, and it is the only version that adds up across 30 companies. Per company the question is narrower: how much more of the business do I own? Over the last year the median Dow member retired 0.77% of its own shares, and 20 of the 29 members with a published figure shrank at all.
We publish the median rather than a size-weighted average on purpose. Weighted by market value the same members read 0.60%, but that number is mostly not about buybacks: it is dominated by the few large members that issued stock to pay for an acquisition — CVX (-14.35%), AMZN (-1.14%), BA (-4.53%), IBM (-1.14%). One all-stock merger moves it further than every repurchase in the index, which is exactly why a weighted realized yield is a merger detector rather than a buyback measure.
Buyback yield across indexes#
The same calculation over each index's own members — the Dow Jones Industrial Average ranks 2 of 3 on gross buyback yield. A price-weighted or tech-heavy index is a different mix of businesses, and cash-return policy differs with it.
| Index | Buyback yield | Net of issuance | Dividend yield | Total | Repurchased (TTM) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 | 1.45% | 1.35% | 1.02% | 2.47% | $1.01T |
| Dow Jones | 1.35% | 1.34% | 0.83% | 2.18% | $337B |
| Nasdaq-100 | 0.93% | 0.79% | 0.44% | 1.37% | $366B |
Buybacks against earnings, by fiscal year#
Repurchases as a share of net income. A ratio rather than dollars, because dollars mostly track how big the members got: the ratio is what shows discretion — it falls in a downturn, when boards suspend repurchases long before they will touch a dividend.
| Fiscal year | Buybacks | Net income | % of earnings | vs dividends |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $290B | $706B | 41% | 1.49× |
| FY2024 | $253B | $570B | 44% | 1.40× |
| FY2023 | $229B | $506B | 45% | 1.25× |
| FY2022 | $241B | $472B | 51% | 1.48× |
| FY2021 | $198B | $478B | 41% | 1.29× |
| FY2020 | $156B | $295B | 53% | 1.12× |
| FY2019 | $224B | $337B | 66% | 1.52× |
| FY2018 | $239B | $318B | 75% | 1.74× |
| FY2017 | $168B | $280B | 60% | 1.23× |
| FY2016 | $135B | $248B | 54% | 1.13× |
| FY2015 | $133B | $237B | 56% | 1.28× |
| FY2014 | $166B | $260B | 64% | 1.60× |
FAQ#
- What is the Dow Jones Industrial Average's buyback yield?
- About 1.35%. Dow Jones companies repurchased $337B of their own stock over the last reported twelve months, against $24.89T of combined market value. Net of the $4B they raised issuing shares it is 1.34%.
- Which Dow companies buy back the most stock?
- Apple Inc. (AAPL) leads at $82B over the last twelve months, followed by NVIDIA Corporation at $45B. The 10 biggest repurchasers account for 84% of all Dow buyback spending — the aggregate is a small-number story, not a broad one.
- How much of Dow earnings goes to buybacks?
- In FY2025, members spent $290B on repurchases against $706B of net income — 41% of what they earned, before the $194B they also paid in dividends.
- Is a buyback yield comparable to a dividend yield?
- As cash returned, yes — a company retiring 3% of its shares has returned as much as one paying a 3% dividend, and the shareholder who doesn't sell simply owns more of the business instead of receiving cash. Three differences matter. Buybacks are discretionary and get cut in a downturn where dividends are defended. Gross repurchases overstate the effect when a company issues shares back out: Dow Jones members raised $4B doing exactly that, undoing 1% of the $337B they spent. And cash spent is not the same as shares retired — the per-company table above shows the realized figure, where CVX's 2.82% of cash spending bought a -14.35% reduction in its share count.
Methodology & related#
Two definitions, and this page uses both deliberately. The cash buyback yield is dollars spent on repurchases over market capitalisation. The realized buyback yield is the change in the company's own share count — what an owner actually gains. They differ whenever the stock re-rates while the company is buying: cash over today's value flatters anyone whose price fell after they spent the money, which is why CVX reads 2.82% on cash and -14.35% realized.
Per company we show realized, from growth_metrics.buyback_yield_1y: the SEC cover-page share count measured against itself a year earlier, published only when the cash-flow statement confirms a repurchase inside that window, so a share count that merely changed definition can't masquerade as a buyback. It is the same column behind the buyback yield list, shareholder yield and the screener, so a company reads the same figure everywhere on this site.
For the index aggregate we show cash, from members' own SEC cash-flow lines via our EDGAR pipeline (30 of 30 members with a market value), summed over today's members and divided by their combined market capitalisation — the same aggregate the shareholder yield page uses, and what index providers publish. A realized figure cannot be summed the same way: weighting members' share-count changes by size produces 0.60% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average today, driven almost entirely by members that issued stock to buy another company rather than by anything to do with repurchases. Where a realized summary is meaningful — the median member — it is in shares actually retired above. Gross buybacks are the cash spent; “net of issuance” subtracts cash raised issuing shares, which is not the same as netting off stock compensation.
See also dividend yield, aggregate earnings and the P/E ratio. Past behaviour does not predict future repurchases; not investment advice.
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