The largest buybacks of all time

its endless number of acquisitions. Cisco is a company that deserves kudos for clear communications in its earnings releases, as it spells out each time how many shares were bought and for what price, as well as showing what the cumulative tally has been over time. The flip side of the equation is that the most recent count of 5.1 bln or so shares outstanding compared to about 5.8 bln as of the same time in 2009.

As of January 24, Cisco had repurchased and retired 4.4 bln shares of its own common stock. It was also profitable if you look at the average share price versus recent trading, as the average price for stock buybacks was listed as $20.73 per share, bringing the total buybacks to about $90.7 bln since the company began its stock buyback plan.

Market cap: $151 bln Dividend yield: 3.1%

Exxon Mobil may have slowed its share buybacks as the price of oil has plunged, but the oil and gas giant used over $13 bln for share buybacks alone in the year 2014. What is amazing is just how many shares this company has bought back — even in the wake of its $40 bln or so acquisition of XTO Energy in 2010.

Exxon had more than 6 bln shares outstanding as recently as 2006, but this was down to about 4.2 bln shares most recently. Exxon’s buybacks have been jokes about taking the company private over the next 15 to 20 years, but it almost certainly will take a return to higher oil for that to occur. Exxon may now focus on raising its dividend, a move that was still expected to occur in the first half of 2015, even with lower oil prices.

Market cap: $287 bln Dividend yield: 3.3%

General Electric is the whole impetus for this article, after announcing its $50 bln buyback plan. Investors will want to know that GE has already shrunk its outstanding share count from around 10.6 bln shares to about 10.0 bln shares. Buybacks are not new here, but what is new is that GE, at least as of the new plans on Friday, intends to shrink its share count down to 8.0 bln to 8.5 bln by 2018.

GE’s restructuring into an industrial conglomerate is going to generate billions of dollars for the parent company — $30 bln or so from real estate sales, near term. Another part of the funding will be from a repatriation of some $36 bln in capital that is currently locked up overseas, which will create a $6 bln tax payment. The spin-off of the post-IPO shares of Synchrony Financial (NYSE: SYF) will come into play as far as GE’s plan to now keep the dividend static through 2016, where GE may still be able to claim that the dividend was raised without an official payout boost due to the size of Synchrony.

Market cap: $151 bln Dividend yield: 3.1%

Intel’s 2014 annual report signalled that the board’s original approval of share purchases had been amended to allow up to $65 bln for share buybacks, including some $20 bln of an increase that had been approved in 2014, with some $12.7 bln remaining available to be used for buybacks as of the end of 2014. Intel said that, as the end of 2014, it shrank the float from 5.6 bln shares to 5.1 bln in just five years, with a total of $54.2 bln in combined dividends and buybacks sent to shareholders in that five years.

Now, go back even further to January 2011. At that time, Intel said: “Since the company’s stock buyback program began in 1990, Intel has repurchased approximately 3.4 bln shares at a cost of approximately $70 bln. Taken together since their inception, Intel’s dividends and stock buyback program have returned approximately $91 bln to shareholders.”

Market cap: $151 bln Dividend yield: 3.1%

IBM has been the king of financial engineering to grow earnings per share, having reduced its share count even in 2013 by a third since the beginning of 2000. The company keeps buying back more and more shares as well. Its core business has not grown, but spending billions has helped it shrink the float even with the dilution of stock options, restricted stock and other share-growing activities tech companies have.

While IBM has used less cash to repurchase stock of late, at the end of December 2014 IBM had approximately $6.3 bln remaining from the current share repurchase authorisation and promised to seek higher buyback approvals ahead. After shrinking its float by 8% or so in the past year, IBM has spent well over $160 bln between dividends and buybacks alone since 2000 to return capital to shareholders. Big Blue now has less than a billion shares outstanding.

Market cap: $342 bln Dividend yield: 3.0%

Microsoft has been buying back stock on and off for years now, and its dividend yield is impressive. Growth has been sporadic and a restructuring to cloud and mobile first under Satya Nadella may have run into headwinds after a stellar reception in 2014. A multibillion debt filing from February indicated that Microsoft still had $31 bln remaining under its prior $40 bln stock buyback plan.

What investors need to consider here is that Microsoft has had two prior stock buyback plans of $40 bln each, so if it completes the planned buybacks by the end of 2016, then it will have used $120 bln or so to repurchase shares.

Also note that Microsoft’s shares outstanding count is still 8.2 bln. That means it takes a lot to move the needle.

Market cap: $225 bln Dividend yield: 3.1%

This is not automatically buybacks.

After all, consumer products rarely come with the same margins as software and popular consumer electronics gadgets. Still, if you go back to early in 2005, around the time Procter & Gamble planned to acquire Gillette, the company signalled that it would spend around $20 bln acquiring its own shares for the 18 months ahead. The Wall Street Journal at the time had said it would be $18 bln to $22 bln.

In 2005, it was not common at all to see companies announce even a $10 bln buyback — let alone $20 bln. As recently as 2008, Procter & Gamble had just over 3 bln shares outstanding, and it now has closer to 2.7 bln.

With a Buffett deal for Duracell and with the company divesting so many non-growth brands, it seems logical that the consumer products giant could look to shrink its float even further.

The earnings report from January 2015 showed that it used $4.25 bln in 2014 and $4.0 bln in 2013 for share buybacks. a company that investors think of for huge stock