SPY buyback yield: 1.55%
From SPY's filings, announced changes and its holdings' filings and prices. Not supplied or endorsed by S&P Dow Jones Indices.
SPY's holdings spent $1.07T repurchasing their own stock over the last reported twelve months — cash returned in the form of buybacks worth 1.55% of their combined $68.80T of market value, and 60% of all the cash they returned to shareholders. Net of the $107B they raised issuing new shares, the yield is 1.39%. Add the 1.05% dividend yield and you get the total shareholder yield of 2.60%.
Who is doing the buying back#
Data provided bySource: Twelve DataS&P 500 members by trailing-twelve-month repurchase spending. The 10 biggest account for 30% of the members' 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 | Filed weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAPL | $86B | 1.66% | 14.78B → 14.53B | 1.67% | 6.59% |
| NVDA | $55B | 0.83% | 24.30B → 24.10B | 1.41% | 7.52% |
| CRM | $35B | 13.56% | 952M → 823M | 19.56% | 0.20% |
| BAC | $26B | 5.51% | 7.30B → 6.90B | 7.26% | 0.58% |
| JPM | $24B | 2.45% | 2.72B → 2.66B | 2.66% | 1.36% |
| MSFT | $21B | 0.08% | 7.43B → 7.43B | 0.54% | 4.30% |
| XOM | $20B | 3.27% | 4.22B → 4.08B | 2.94% | 0.88% |
| V | $20B | 3.12% | 1.91B → 1.85B | 2.59% | 0.88% |
| C | $18B | 7.50% | 1.79B → 1.66B | 8.67% | 0.37% |
| MA | $15B | 2.99% | 898M → 871M | 2.68% | 0.64% |
| GS | $15B | 3.83% | 300M → 288M | 5.67% | 0.46% |
| WFC | $15B | 4.37% | 3.14B → 3.00B | 5.62% | 0.39% |
| BRK-B | $14B | 1.52% | 2.16B → 2.12B | 1.09% | 1.42% |
| NFLX | $13B | 3.09% | 4.24B → 4.11B | 5.04% | 0.47% |
| BKNG | $12B | — | — | 10.13% | 0.21% |
“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 — CRM spent $35B (19.56% of today's market value) but retired 13.56% of its shares (952M → 823M). A negative figure means the share count grew, usually stock issued to fund an acquisition. Fund 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 1.55% measures cash returned to shareholders in the form of buybacks — dollars spent on repurchases over market value. That is the right question for the aggregate, it is what index providers publish, and it is the only version that adds up across 499 companies. Per company the question is narrower: how much more of the business do I own? Over the last year the median S&P 500 member retired 1.17% of its own shares, and 320 of the 481 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 -0.29%, but that number is mostly not about buybacks: it is dominated by the few large members that issued stock to pay for an acquisition — TSLA (-18.86%), GOOGL (-1.80%), PANW (-22.31%), VMRK (-103.74%). One all-stock merger moves it further than every repurchase in SPY, which is exactly why a weighted realized yield is a merger detector rather than a buyback measure.
Buyback yield across indexes#
Data provided bySource: Twelve DataThe same calculation over each tracking fund's members — the S&P 500 ranks 4 of 8 on gross buyback yield. A price-weighted or tech-heavy index is a different mix of businesses, and cash-return policy differs with it.
| Members of | Buyback yield | Net of issuance | Dividend yield | Total | Repurchased (TTM) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Stock Market | 1.59% | 1.32% | 1.04% | 2.63% | $1.26T |
| Russell 3000 | 1.59% | 1.31% | 1.04% | 2.63% | $1.26T |
| Russell 1000 | 1.58% | 1.34% | 1.03% | 2.61% | $1.21T |
| S&P 500 | 1.55% | 1.39% | 1.05% | 2.60% | $1.07T |
| S&P 500 Equal Weight | 1.54% | 1.38% | 1.04% | 2.58% | $1.05T |
| Dow Jones | 1.25% | 1.08% | 0.76% | 2.01% | $349B |
| Nasdaq Composite | 1.10% | 0.84% | 0.53% | 1.62% | $502B |
| Nasdaq-100 | 0.96% | 0.76% | 0.48% | 1.44% | $362B |
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 | $943B | $2.08T | 45% | 1.37× |
| FY2024 | $855B | $1.87T | 46% | 1.32× |
| FY2023 | $789B | $1.74T | 45% | 1.30× |
| FY2022 | $927B | $1.58T | 59% | 1.61× |
| FY2021 | $750B | $1.75T | 43% | 1.42× |
| FY2020 | $496B | $825B | 60% | 1.01× |
| FY2019 | $724B | $1.22T | 59% | 1.47× |
| FY2018 | $713B | $1.11T | 64% | 1.57× |
| FY2017 | $482B | $1.01T | 48% | 1.11× |
| FY2016 | $475B | $864B | 55% | 1.19× |
| FY2015 | $477B | $792B | 60% | 1.30× |
| FY2014 | $485B | $874B | 55% | 1.46× |
FAQ#
- What is the S&P 500's buyback yield?
- About 1.55%. S&P 500 companies repurchased $1.07T of their own stock over the last reported twelve months, against $68.80T of combined market value. Net of the $107B they raised issuing shares it is 1.39%.
- Which S&P 500 companies buy back the most stock?
- Apple Inc. (AAPL) leads at $86B over the last twelve months, followed by NVIDIA Corporation at $55B. The 10 biggest repurchasers account for 30% of all S&P 500 buyback spending — the aggregate is a small-number story, not a broad one.
- How much of S&P 500 earnings goes to buybacks?
- In FY2025, members spent $943B on repurchases against $2.08T of net income — 45% of what they earned, before the $689B 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: S&P 500 members raised $107B doing exactly that, undoing 10% of the $1.07T they spent. And cash spent is not the same as shares retired — the per-company table above shows the realized figure, where CRM's 19.56% of cash spending bought a 13.56% 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 CRM reads 19.56% on cash and 13.56% 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 aggregate we show cash, from members' own SEC cash-flow lines (489 of 499 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 -0.29% for the S&P 500 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. Past behaviour does not predict future repurchases; not investment advice.
More on S&P 500
- P/E ratio26.0
- Shiller P/E (CAPE)38.6
- Valuation bands26.0×
- Dividend yield1.10%
- Shareholder yield2.60%
- Companies & weights500
- Stock performance500
- Sector performance+48.2%
Sources
- SPY's SEC filings: The fund's holdings as it reports them on Form N-PORT, public on SEC EDGAR; ChartRow rolls the weights forward by price.
- Announced index changes: Additions and deletions announced since the fund's latest filing, entered by ChartRow from public announcements; a name added since the filing carries a weight estimated from its market cap.
- SPY's holdings' SEC filings: Each company's own 10-K and 10-Q filings on SEC EDGAR: earnings, buybacks, dividends and shares.
- SPY's holdings' prices: Each company's market prices and dividends, licensed from Twelve Data.
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