Years of Rewards: $32 Bil From United Parcel Service Stock
In the last five years, United Parcel Service (UPS) stock has returned $32 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, UPS stock has returned the 56th highest amount to shareholders in history.
| UPS | S&P Median | |
|---|---|---|
| Dividends | $25 Bil | $3.0 Bil |
| Share Repurchase | $7.8 Bil | $3.0 Bil |
| Total Returned | $32 Bil | $6.0 Bil |
| Total Returned as % of Current Market Cap | 37.1% | 16.5% |
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 stocks like that. Here is a list of the top 10 companies ranked by total capital returned to shareholders via dividends and stock repurchases.
Top 10 Stocks By Total Shareholder Return
- With United Parcel Service Stock Sliding, Have You Assessed The Risk?
- A Decade of Rewards: $54 Bil From United Parcel Service Stock
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- United Parcel Service Stock Has Paid Out $54 Bil to Investors in the Past Decade
- UPS Has Paid Out $54 Bil to Investors in the Past Decade
- UPS Stock Down -18% after 5-Day Loss Streak
| Total Money Returned | As % Of Current Market Cap | via Dividends | via Share Repurchases | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAPL | $514 Bil | 13.5% | $75 Bil | $439 Bil |
| GOOGL | $296 Bil | 7.4% | $17 Bil | $279 Bil |
| MSFT | $223 Bil | 7.6% | $105 Bil | $118 Bil |
| JPM | $176 Bil | 20.7% | $71 Bil | $105 Bil |
| META | $159 Bil | 9.5% | $10 Bil | $149 Bil |
| XOM | $152 Bil | 24.0% | $79 Bil | $73 Bil |
| BAC | $125 Bil | 31.7% | $45 Bil | $80 Bil |
| CVX | $112 Bil | 30.1% | $57 Bil | $55 Bil |
| WFC | $105 Bil | 41.1% | $22 Bil | $83 Bil |
| NVDA | $96 Bil | 2.0% | $3.0 Bil | $93 Bil |
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. Stocks like Meta (META) and Microsoft (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 UPS. (see Buy or Sell United Parcel Service Stock for more details.)
United Parcel Service Fundamentals
- Revenue Growth: -2.6% LTM and -4.0% last 3-year average.
- Cash Generation: Nearly 5.4% free cash flow margin and 8.9% operating margin LTM.
- Recent Revenue Shocks: The minimum annual revenue growth in the last 3 years for UPS was -9.3%.
- Valuation: United Parcel Service stock trades at a P/E multiple of 15.8
| UPS | S&P Median | |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Industrials | – |
| Industry | Air Freight & Logistics | – |
| PE Ratio | 15.8 | 24.2 |
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| LTM* Revenue Growth | -2.6% | 6.8% |
| 3Y Average Annual Revenue Growth | -4.0% | 5.5% |
| Min Annual Revenue Growth Last 3Y | -9.3% | 0.4% |
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| LTM* Operating Margin | 8.9% | 18.6% |
| 3Y Average Operating Margin | 9.4% | 18.1% |
| LTM* Free Cash Flow Margin | 5.4% | 14.2% |
*LTM: Last Twelve Months
The table gives a good overview of what you get from UPS stock, but what about the risk?
UPS Historical Risk
UPS isn’t immune to big drops either. It fell about 48% during the Global Financial Crisis, 38% in the inflation shock, and 34% during the Dot-Com bubble. Even the smaller corrections, like 2018 and the COVID crash, hit it for 31% and 27% declines. Good fundamentals matter, but when markets sell off hard, UPS still takes a pretty serious hit.
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, a less of a roller-coaster ride, as evident in HQ Portfolio performance metrics.