Shareholder Yield
Leaders.
Shareholder yield is the cash a company hands back to its owners, minus the stock it hands to its employees. Dividends plus buybacks, less stock-based pay, as a share of today's market value, ranked for every stock we track. And with one button, a 15-year look at which companies have really shrunk themselves, and which only ran to stand still.
Reading the filings…
How it's calculated, exactly
| Part | What it is | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Dividend yield | Dividends paid on common stock ÷ market cap | Cash-flow statement, "dividends paid" |
| Buyback yield | Cash spent buying back shares ÷ market cap | Cash-flow statement, "repurchase of common stock" |
| Stock comp drag | Stock-based compensation ÷ market cap, taken off | Cash-flow statement, "share-based compensation" |
| Net shareholder yield | Dividends + buybacks − stock comp | The three lines above |
| Share count | Diluted shares, put on today's basis across stock splits | Income statement, restated split by split from the filings themselves |
- Why subtract stock comp. A company that spends $10 billion on buybacks while handing out $10 billion in shares to staff has not shrunk at all: it paid cash to stand still. The same logic as the stock-comp haircut on Earnings Quality, applied to what owners get back.
- Over several years the yields are yearly averages (the total over the window ÷ the years), always against today's market cap, so they say how big a slice of the company's current value comes back each year.
- Shares retired is the cleanest buyback score: how much smaller the share count is than at the start of the window. It does not depend on the share price at which the company bought.
- Market caps come from the weekly screener data, so yields move with the price. The dollars are as filed in each fiscal year.
What this can't do
- Buying back stock is not a virtue by itself. A buyback at a very high price destroys value, and one year's total can be lumpy. The 15-year view smooths timing; it cannot tell you whether the price paid was fair.
- Stock comp is only one kind of dilution. Shares issued to buy another company, or to raise cash, show up in the share count but not in the stock-comp line, which is why both are shown side by side.
- Companies that listed during the window are measured from their first full year as a listed company: a private company's share count says nothing about buybacks. Companies with fewer than 15 years of filings are labelled, not guessed.
- Banks and insurers pay owners through the same lines, but their capital rules decide how much they may pay. A high yield there is bounded by regulators, not only by choice.
- Filings only. A number a company does not report is shown as n/a, never estimated. The most recent year can be up to a year old.
On Oct 23, 2026, the highest net shareholder yield among the 503 stocks this site tracks is Western Union (WU) at 25.5%: 15.9% paid as dividends and 12.1% spent on buybacks, minus 2.4% of stock handed to employees, all as a share of today's market value (fiscal 2025).
Who Pays Its
Owners Most?
Net shareholder yield is the headline, with the three parts that make it up beside it. Click any row for the full stock card.
One click for the long view. Ranks the companies that bought back the most over up to 15 fiscal years, by how much of the company they retired. Sort it by dollars spent, share of profit or share of market cap instead if you prefer.
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The Buyback
Treadmill.
These companies have each spent more than $5 billion on buybacks over the years, yet have at most 3% fewer shares than they started with. The cash went out; the shares came back in as stock pay and share issues. That is the gap between a buyback headline and a smaller share count.
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Up to 15 fiscal years of buybacks from each company's 10-K filings, against its split-adjusted share count. A flat share count is not always bad: a company may have used the shares for acquisitions that grew the business.
How To Read
The Yield.
The ranking is only as useful as the questions you ask of it.
Dividends or buybacks?
Both return cash. A dividend lands in your account whether or not you want it, and is hard to cut without a signal. A buyback is flexible and tends to be bigger, but it only helps owners if the shares really shrink and the price paid was sensible.
That is why the page shows the share count beside the cash: the buyback has to show up in it.
Why subtract stock pay?
Paying employees in shares is a real cost: it spreads the same company over more shares. Net yield takes it off, so a company that buys back stock only to cancel its own stock comp scores near zero, as it should.
A negative net yield means the company gives away more in stock than it returns in cash.
Why look at 15 years?
One year can be a one-off: a huge special buyback, a pause during a crisis. Fifteen years covers a full cycle of good and bad times, and shows habit: who buys every year and who buys only when the price is high.
It cannot show price discipline. For that, ask what the company paid, and whether it was worth it.
Which stocks have the highest shareholder yield?
On Oct 23, 2026, the highest net shareholder yield among the 503 stocks this site tracks is Western Union (WU) at 25.5%: 15.9% paid as dividends and 12.1% spent on buybacks, minus 2.4% of stock handed to employees, all as a share of today's market value (fiscal 2025).
| Stock | Net yield | Dividends | Buybacks | Stock comp | Share count per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WUWestern Union Co | 25.5% | 15.9% | 12.1% | 2.4% | -6.1% |
| CHTRCharter Communications Inc | 22.9% | 0.0% | 26.3% | 3.5% | -4.8% |
| TDGTransDigm Group Inc | 16.2% | 15.6% | 0.8% | 0.2% | +4.8% |
| MGMMGM Resorts International | 15.6% | 0.0% | 16.9% | 1.2% | -12.1% |
| AIGAmerican International Group Inc | 15.4% | 2.3% | 13.6% | 0.5% | -11.3% |
| LUVSouthwest Airlines Co | 14.3% | 2.0% | 12.8% | 0.5% | -6.6% |
| AREAlexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc | 14.3% | 12.1% | 2.8% | 0.5% | -0.2% |
| CMCSAComcast Corp | 13.2% | 6.0% | 8.8% | 1.6% | -5.4% |
| ITGartner Inc | 13.0% | 0.0% | 14.2% | 1.1% | -2.6% |
| LVSLas Vegas Sands Corp | 12.7% | 3.5% | 9.4% | 0.2% | -4.8% |
Net shareholder yield is dividends plus buybacks minus stock-based compensation, over market value. The list above ranks all 503 and shows 3-year and 15-year views, including who really shrank their share count. See shareholder yield in the glossary.
From each company's own 10-K filings on SEC EDGAR and today's market caps. Educational content only, not investment advice.
Frequently asked questions
What is shareholder yield?
Dividends plus buybacks, minus the stock a company hands to employees, as a share of its market value. A company that spends $10 billion on buybacks while issuing $10 billion of shares to staff has not shrunk, so its net yield is only its dividend.
Why subtract stock-based compensation?
Because it dilutes owners or forces buybacks just to stand still. Counting buybacks without it overstates what comes back to shareholders.
Where does the data come from?
Each company's own 10-K filings on SEC EDGAR for dividends, buybacks, stock compensation and split-adjusted share counts, combined with today's market caps. A number a company does not report is shown as n/a.
What is shareholder yield?
Shareholder yield is dividends plus net share buybacks, minus the dilution from stock-based pay, measured against market cap. This page ranks every stock we track on dividend yield, buyback yield and net shareholder yield, and its 15-year "most bought back" view shows which companies really shrank their share count after repurchasing shares. All figures come from each company's 10-K filings. The method is written down: how shareholder yield is computed. See dividends versus buybacks.
Educational content only, not investment advice. A high shareholder yield can mean a bargain, a company with nothing better to do with its cash, or a falling price that inflates the percentage. Pair it with Earnings Quality (is the profit real?), Capital-Light Compounders (does the company need the cash it keeps?) and the Margin of Safety Explorer, and read the company's own filings before acting.