By Sam Boughedda
S&P Dow Jones Indices said in a release Friday that S&P 500 buybacks in the third quarter were $210.8 billion, down 4% from Q2's $219.6B as participation declined.
In addition, buybacks were down 10.1% from Q3 2021's $234.6B.
They reported that 319 companies reported buybacks of at least $5M during the quarter, down from 331 in the second quarter but rising from 309 in Q3 last year.
In addition, 384 companies made some buybacks, the same as in Q2 and an increase from the 371 last year. However, buybacks remained top-heavy, with the top 20 companies accounting for 49%.
For the 12 months ended September 2022, 441 companies did some buybacks, up from 424 in the prior year period, with buybacks during the 12 months coming in at $981.6B, down from the record $1.005T posted for the June 2022 period, and up from the $742.2B spent in the September 2021 time period.
S&P 500 dividends fell 0.2% to $140.3B in the third quarter from Q2's record $140.6B, but they rose 7.9% from the $130B in Q3. Total shareholders' return of buybacks and dividends declined to $351.2B in Q3 2022, down 2.5% from Q2 and 3.7% from Q3 2021.