Buybacks Play Bigger Role in S&P 500 Earnings Per Share

Companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index are increasingly bolstering earnings per share through stock buybacks, according to Howard Silverblatt, a senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC. During the first quarter, the percentage of companies that cut the number of shares outstanding by at least 4 percent may have increased for the fourth straight quarter, according to data compiled by Silverblatt and provided Monday in an e-mail. To be sure, he wrote that he expects the proportion of companies crossing the threshold to decline from the current reading, 30 percent.