A Decade of Rewards: IBM Returns $77 Bil to Investors

In the last decade, International Business Machines (IBM) has returned a notable $77 Bil back to its shareholders through cold, hard cash via dividends and buybacks. Let’s look at some numbers and compare how this payout power stacks up against the market’s biggest capital-return machines.

As it turns out, IBM has returned the 27th highest amount to shareholders in history.

Why should you care? Because dividends and share repurchases represent direct, tangible returns of capital to shareholders. They also signal management’s confidence in the company’s financial health and ability to generate sustainable cash flows. And there are more companies like that. Here is a list of the top 10 companies ranked by total capital returned to shareholders via dividends and stock repurchases.

Single stock can be risky, but there is a huge value to a broader diversified approach. Strategic asset allocation and diversification helps you stay invested. Did you know investors who panicked out of the S&P in 2020 lost significant upside that followed? Trefis High Quality Portfolio and Empirical Asset Management’s asset allocation approach are designed to reduce volatility so you can stay the course.

Top 10 Companies By Total Shareholder Return

For full ranking, visit Buybacks & Dividends Ranking

What do you notice here? The total capital returned to shareholders as a % of the current market cap appears inversely proportional to growth prospects for reinvestments. Companies like META and MSFT are growing much faster, in a more predictable way, compared to the others, but they have returned a much lower fraction of their market cap to shareholders.

That’s the flip side to high capital returns. Sure, they are attractive, but you have to ask yourself the question: Am I sacrificing growth and sound fundamentals? With that in mind, let’s look at some numbers for IBM. (see Buy or Sell IBM Stock for more details)

IBM Fundamentals

• Revenue Growth: 2.7% LTM and 2.4% last 3-year average.
• Cash Generation: Nearly 18.2% free cash flow margin and 17.1% operating margin LTM.
• Recent Revenue Shocks: The minimum annual revenue growth in the last 3 years for IBM was 1.4%.
• Valuation: IBM trades at a P/E multiple of 46.0
• Opportunity vs S&P: Compared to S&P, you get higher valuation, lower revenue growth, and lower margins

*LTM: Last Twelve Months

That’s a good overview, but evaluating a stock from an investment perspective involves much more. That is exactly what Trefis High Quality Portfolio does. It is designed to reduce stock-specific risk while giving upside exposure.

IBM Historical Risk

That said, IBM isn’t immune to big sell-offs. It fell over 40% in both the Dot-Com Bubble and the Global Financial Crisis. The 2018 correction and Covid dip both took it down around 36 to 39%. Even the smaller inflation shock in 2022 caused an 18% drop. Solid fundamentals only go so far—when the market turns, IBM can still see significant pullbacks.

But the risk is not limited to major market crashes. Stocks fall even when markets are good – think events like earnings, business updates, and outlook changes. Read IBM Dip Buyer Analyses to see how the stock has recovered from sharp dips in the past.

The Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio, with a collection of 30 stocks, has a track record of comfortably outperforming its benchmark that includes all 3 – the S&P 500, S&P mid-cap, and Russell 2000 indices. Why is that? As a group, HQ Portfolio stocks provided better returns with less risk versus the benchmark index; less of a roller-coaster ride, as evident in HQ Portfolio performance metrics.