full text:
Buyback Activity Expected to Continue As Market Volatility Persists
Standard & Poor's, the world's leading index provider, announced today that S&P 500 stock buyback activity significantly accelerated during the second quarter of 2007, posting its seventh consecutive quarter of $100 billion-plus in stock buybacks. Standard & Poor's Index Services estimates that $157.8 billion was spent on stock buybacks during the second quarter of 2007, a 35.2% increase from the $116.7 billion registered during the second quarter of 2006.
"The record buyback activity was fueled by IBM's landmark $15.7 billion stock buyback during the second quarter," says Howard Silverblatt, Senior Index Analyst at Standard & Poor's. "Large quarterly buybacks were also reported by Exxon Mobil at $7.6 billion and Microsoft at $7.2 billion. Standard & Poor's expects buyback activity to continue at a high level for the remainder of 2007, but not at a record setting pace, as corporations and investors remain enamored with the use of enormous company cash resources for stock buybacks."
Over the past eleven quarters, when the buyback bonanza started, S&P 500 issues have spent approximately $1.12 trillion on stock buybacks compared to (a similar) $1.24 trillion on Capital Expenditures and $594 billion on dividends.
Treasury share buildup continued during the second quarter with shares outstanding for the S&P 500 decreasing 3.0%. Diluted shares, which are used in earnings per share calculations, declined 2.5% signaling that companies were busy issuing shares (or equivalent) during the quarter. Standard & Poor's also notes that the top-ten buyback issues accounted for 35% of all stock buybacks during the quarter with an aggregate amount of over $54 billion.

  STANDARD & POOR'S INDEX SERVICES
  S&P 500

                                                                  12-MONTH
                     MARKET   AS REPORTED                        DIVIDEND &
  QUARTER            VALUE      EARNINGS   DIVIDENDS   BUYBACKS   BUYBACK
  END             $ BILLION    $ BILLION   $ BILLION   $ BILLION   YIELD

  06/30/2007      13,349.73      195.36      59.44       157.76     5.43%
  03/31/2007      12,706.32      191.10      58.32       117.70     5.34%
  12/31/2006      12,728.86      182.19      61.76       105.18     5.15%
  09/30/2006      12,019.85      193.19      54.78       109.81     5.39%
  06/30/2006      11,496.84      182.02      54.46       116.66     5.34%
  03/31/2006      11,659.69      177.30      53.25       100.18     4.92%
  12/31/2005      11,254.54      155.89      54.83       104.28     4.90%
  09/30/2005      11,082.59      160.72      48.99        81.47     4.58%
  06/30/2005      10,890.01      167.19      49.03        81.42     4.31%
  03/31/2005      10,819.81      154.43      48.99        82.05     3.92%
  12/31/2004      11,288.60      129.85      49.68        66.42     3.35%
  09/30/2004      10,397.80      132.28      45.54        45.68     3.34%
  06/30/2004      10,623.42      142.01      43.43        42.46     3.11%
  03/31/2004      10,461.32      141.01      42.36        42.92     2.97%
  12/31/2003      10,285.83      121.74      46.76        38.53     2.84%
  09/30/2003       9,207.69      116.12      39.96        34.13     3.00%
  06/30/2003       9,001.01      102.53      37.74        28.36     3.04%
  03/31/2003       7,826.70      109.99      36.19        30.03     3.53%
  12/31/2002       8,107.41       27.64      39.22        30.62     3.39%
  09/30/2002       7,518.37       78.66      35.97        35.18     3.65%
  06/30/2002       9,090.53       63.09      38.11        30.98     3.03%
  03/31/2002      10,501.89       84.11      34.51        30.47     2.61%
  12/31/2001      10,463.39       49.67      36.27        32.75     2.62%
  09/30/2001       9,436.72       47.41      37.53        34.63     2.91%
  06/30/2001      11,027.29       43.50      34.58        33.62     2.44%
  03/31/2001      10,384.68       82.16      33.83        31.21     2.63%

For more information: http://www.standardandpoors.com/

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