Although companies that were major share repurchasers lagged the S&P 500 in the first quarter, SYLD and TTFS have managed to slightly outpace the benchmark U.S. index on a year-to-date basis.
“On a sector basis, Information Technology increased its dominance of buybacks, accounting for 30.9% of all buybacks in Q1 (up from 26.7% in Q4),” said S&P Dow Jones Indices. Tech is PKW’s second-largest sector weight at 17%, about half the weight the ETF devotes to consumer discretionary stocks.
The largest share repurchasers after Apple were Dow components International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) and Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM). FedEx (NYSE: FDX) and Boeing (NYSE: BA) round out the top-five.
Cambria Shareholder Yield ETF
Tom Lydon’s clients own shares of Apple.