NEW YORK, June 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Standard & Poor's, the world's leading index provider, announced today that preliminary results show that S&P 500 issues spent $30.8 billion on stock repurchases during the first quarter of 2009, representing a 73% decline from the $113.9 billion spent during the first quarter of 2008. Buybacks are off 82% from their peak during the third quarter of 2007 when S&P 500 companies spent $172 billion on share repurchases.

"This was the fifth consecutive quarterly reduction in stock buybacks for the S&P 500 companies," says Howard Silverblatt, Senior Index Analyst at Standard & Poor's. "However, a closer look at the data reveals two more telling stories. The first is that Exxon Mobil represented over a quarter of the buybacks that took place during the first quarter. The second is that 83 of the issues that repurchased shares during the fourth quarter of 2008 did not participate in a stock buyback program during the first quarter of 2009."

"The need to conserve capital in the current recession, combined with the uncertainty of future cash flow, has made buybacks too high risk for most corporations," continues Silverblatt. "Standard & Poor's expects buybacks to remain weak for the foreseeable future, even as earnings are expected to improve. Buybacks are now well behind dividends in corporate priorities, and dividends are declining."

On a sector basis, Standard & Poor's notes that all groups significantly reduced their buyback activity during the first quarter of 2009 with utilities and telecommunications only making token purchases. Since the buyback boom began during the fourth quarter of 2004, S&P 500 issues have spent approximately $1.8 trillion on stock buybacks compared to 2.0 trillion on Capital Expenditures, $1.0 trillion on dividends, and earning $2.3 trillion in As Reported Earnings,.

"The reality appears to be that buybacks as we know them are gone, at least until the return of better times," concludes Silverblatt.

Historical S&P 500 buyback data can be found at: www.marketattributes.standardandpoors.com.

STANDARD & POOR'S INDEX SERVICES

S&P 500 BUYBACKS

AS__ DIVIDEND

PERIOD__ MARKET__ OPERATING__ REPORTED__ &

VALUE__ EARNINGS__ EARNINGS DIVIDENDS__ BUYBACKS BUYBACK

$ BILLIONS $ BILLIONS $ BILLIONS $ BILLIONS $ BILLIONS YIELD

QUARTER

03/31/2009

prelim. $6,928__ $88.04__ $65.94__ $51.73__ $30.78__ 7.13%

12/31/2008__ $7,852__ -$0.78__ -$202.11__ $62.19__ $48.12__ 7.48%

09/30/2008 $10,181__ $142.90__ $86.16__ $61.44__ $89.71__ 6.73%

06/30/2008 $11,163__ $148.43__ $112.15__ $61.94__ $87.91__ 6.88%

03/30/2008 $11,511__ $144.63__ $135.24__ $61.72__ $113.90__ 7.25%

12/31/2007 $12,868__ $133.38__ $68.53__ $67.09__ $141.71__ 6.49%

09/30/2007 $13,470__ $184.13__ $133.66__ $61.21__ $171.95__ 5.89%

06/30/2007 $13,350__ $213.65__ $194.30__ $59.76__ $157.76__ 5.44%

03/31/2007 $12,706__ $200.23__ $190.75__ $58.53__ $117.70__ 5.35%

12/31/2006 $12,729__ $197.35__ $181.65__ $61.79__ $105.18__ 5.16%

09/30/2006 $12,020__ $207.22__ $193.19__ $55.07__ $109.81__ 5.40%

06/30/2006 $11,497__ $198.67__ $182.02__ $54.52__ $116.66__ 5.34%

03/31/2006 $11,660__ $186.85__ $177.30__ $53.37__ $100.18__ 4.92%

12/31/2005 $11,255__ $182.03__ $155.89__ $54.83__ $104.28__ 4.90%

09/30/2005 $11,083__ $169.74__ $160.72__ $48.99__ $81.47__ 4.58%

06/30/2005 $10,890__ $177.52__ $167.19__ $49.03__ $81.42__ 4.31%

03/31/2005 $10,820__ $164.42__ $154.43__ $48.99__ $82.05__ 3.92%

12/31/2004 $11,289__ $167.20__ $129.85__ $49.68__ $66.42__ 3.35%

09/30/2004 $10,398__ $157.47__ $132.28__ $45.54__ $45.68__ 3.34%

06/30/2004 $10,623__ $158.12__ $142.01__ $43.43__ $42.46__ 3.11%

03/31/2004 $10,461__ $147.42__ $141.01__ $42.36__ $42.92__ 2.97%

12/31/2003 $10,286__ $137.65__ $121.74__ $46.76__ $38.53__ 2.84%

S&P 500 SECTOR BUYBACKS

CHG:

Q1,'09-

SECTOR $ MILLIONS__ Q1,'09 Q4,'08 Q3,'08 Q2,'08__ Q1,'08 Q1,'08

Consumer Discretionary__ $1,794 $1,847 $9,415 $9,316 $12,743 - 85.92%

Consumer Staples__ $3,942 $4,627 $12,184 $11,629__ $9,608 - 58.97%

Energy__ $7,953 $11,809 $16,128 $14,913 $16,869 -52.85%

Financials__ $620 $4,292 $5,978 $5,782 $13,539 -95.42%

Healthcare__ $7,728 $5,453 $8,331 $10,415 $14,056 -45.02%

Industrials__ $2,358 $7,524 $12,038 $9,795 $13,624 -82.70%

Information Technology__ $6,103 $10,968 $21,996 $23,085 $25,254 - 75.83%

Materials__ $241 $1,433 $2,280 $1,059__ $2,312 -89.59%

Telecommunication Services__ $29__ $87 $1,092 $2,688__ $5,759 - 99.49%

Utilities__ $14__ $79__ $269 $1,262__ $685 -97.90%

TOTAL__ $30,783 $48,117 $89,711 $89,944 $114,449 -73.10%

STANDARD & POOR'S INDEX SERVICES

S&P 500 20 LARGEST Q1 2009 BUYBACKS, $ MILLIONS

Q4,'04-

COMPANY__ SECTOR__ Q1,'09__ Q1,'09

Exxon Mobil Corp__ Energy__ $7,852__ $126,903

Amgen Inc__ Healthcare__ $1,997__ $16,819

Intern'l Business Machines Information Technology $1,765__ $47,945

Philip Morris Int'l, Inc__ Consumer Staples__ $1,376__ $6,632

Oracle Corp__ Information Technology $1,360__ $12,531

Cisco Systems, Inc__ Information Technology $1,204__ $36,458

Procter & Gamble Co__ Consumer Staples__ $1,122__ $43,224

Wal-Mart Stores Inc__ Consumer Staples__ $886__ $13,032

Johnson & Johnson__ Healthcare__ $834__ $21,930

Abbott Laboratories__ Healthcare__ $823__ $5,106

McDonald's Corp__ Consumer Discretionary__ $813__ $12,773

Hewlett-Packard Co__ Information Technology__ $801__ $33,839

Unitedhealth Group, Inc__ Healthcare__ $689__ $16,222

WellPoint Inc__ Healthcare__ $681__ $14,994

Baxter Int'l Inc__ Healthcare__ $566__ $5,559

Lockheed Martin Corp__ Industrials__ $499__ $9,251

AutoZone Inc__ Consumer Discretionary__ $375__ $3,263

DIRECTV Group, Inc__ Consumer Discretionary__ $346__ $6,542

Zimmer Holdings Inc__ Healthcare__ $301__ $2,418

Raytheon Co__ Industrials__ $300__ $4,430

Top 20__ $24,590__ $439,870

About Standard & Poor's Index Services

Standard & Poor's Index Services, the world's leading index provider, maintains a wide variety of investable and benchmark indices to meet an array of investor needs. Its family of indices includes the S&P 500, an index with $1.5 trillion invested and $4.85 trillion benchmarked, and the S&P Global 1200, a composite index comprised of seven regional and country headline indices. For more information, please visit www.standardandpoors.com/indices.

About Standard & Poor's

Standard & Poor's, a subsidiary of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), is the world's foremost provider of independent credit ratings, indices, risk evaluation, investment research and data. With offices in 23 countries and markets, Standard & Poor's is an essential part of the world's financial infrastructure and has played a leading role for more than 140 years in providing investors with the independent benchmarks they need to feel more confident about their investment and financial decisions. For more information, visit www.standardandpoors.com

SOURCE Standard & Poor's

Originally published by Standard & Poor's.

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