S&P 500 Third-Quarter EPS Poised to Show Buyback Benefits
Third-quarter earnings per share for U.S. companies will show the effects of years of stock repurchases, according to Pavilion Global Markets Ltd.’s strategy group. Buybacks by S&P 500 Index companies lifted the benchmark’s quarterly profit by as much as two percentage points during the past five years, the firm estimated in an Oct. 11 report. Pavilion showed the drop in shares outstanding by tracking the S&P 500’s divisor, which has fallen 5.4 percent from a peak in July and August 2011.