S&P 500 Buybacks Hit Record

According to S&P data, share buybacks for S&P 500 stocks reached a new record of $172 billion in the third quarter. This is a 56.6% year-over-year increase and is up from the previous record of $158 billion, which was set in the second quarter of this year.

S&P senior analyst Howard Silverblatt expects the trend to continue into the fourth quarter and throughout 2008.

Over the past three-years, the total amount of stock buybacks by S&P 500 companies has eclipsed Capital Expenditures, Research & Development and common stock dividends.

The S&P 500 companies with the top ten buyback expeditures over a three year have been: Exxon Mobile $76.2B, Microsoft $57.4B, IBM (NYSE: IBM) $34.25B, Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) $29.4B, Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) $26.2B, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) $25.3B, General Electric (NYSE: GE) $24.8B, Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) $22.2B, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) $21.7B, Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) $21.5B.

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