All that chatter about the Federal Reserve possibly tapering its $85 billion-a-month in bond-buying and the subsequent spike in interest rates did little to derail the fortunes of the high-flying PowerShares Buyback Achievers Portfolio (NYSEArca: PKW).
Since May 22, the day when tapering became a part of the everyday financial markets conversation, PKW has surged 13.6%, nearly double the returns of the S&P 500. PKW’s ongoing bullishness is made all the more impressive when considering that tapering speculation made the third quarter the worst of this year regarding buybacks. [Buyback ETFs Keep on Delivering]
Amid tapering talk, companies decreased their buybacks in July and August making the third quarter the lowest of the year at $168.9 billion Jeff Cox reports for CNBC, citing Birinyi Associates. The reason: Many companies have taken advantage of the low interest rate environment to issue corporate bonds, subsequently using the proceeds to fund share repurchases.
Still, tapering and a lower level of buybacks have proven to be no more than minor hurdles for PKW to overcome. Over the past 90 days, the ETF has outpaced the S&P 500 by 350 basis points. In that time, PKW has also been the second-best PowerShares ETF in terms of inflows with almost $821 million, nearly $200 million more than the PowerShares QQQ (NasdaqGS: QQQ), according to issuer data.