Moving the Investment World
Toward Total Yield

The Core Idea

Over the last four decades, companies have increasingly returned capital to shareholders through share buybacks rather than dividends. Dividend yields across the S&P 500 have fallen from roughly 4–5% in earlier decades to around 1.1% today. Yet total capital return — dividends plus buybacks — has remained relatively stable, averaging approximately 3.5% per year over the last 20 years.

Equity income strategies built solely on dividend yield have responded to this shift by concentrating into an ever-smaller, ever-more-expensive pool of high-dividend payers. We think there is a better way.

When an investor participates pro rata in a share buyback — selling their proportional share back to the company — the economic result is identical to receiving a dividend. They maintain the same ownership percentage and receive cash. Buyback yield is equity income. Ignoring it in an income strategy is ignoring half the picture.

What We Do

BBY Strategies develops and licenses rules-based equity model portfolios to registered investment advisors (RIAs) for use in separately managed accounts (SMAs). Our strategies screen the S&P 500 for companies with durable, consistent total shareholder yield — combining dividend yield and buyback yield into a single total yield framework.

We currently offer two strategies:

• BBY Consistent Buyback Yield — screens for companies with buyback yields above 1% in at least 4 of the last 5 years, producing a portfolio of approximately 125 companies with a strong record of consistent capital return.
• BBY High Total Yield — screens for companies with positive buyback yields in at least 2 of the last 3 years, then selects the top 50% by total yield, producing a portfolio of approximately 110 companies optimized for current income.

Both strategies have generated meaningful outperformance versus the S&P 500 and leading high-dividend benchmarks over the 20-year backtest period.

How We Work with RIAs

Our strategies are made available under a model licensing agreement. Each quarter, we deliver a rebalancing spreadsheet that RIAs can implement directly within their SMA infrastructure — using tools like Orion or comparable platforms. RIAs report AUM utilizing the strategy and are invoiced accordingly.

This is a non-discretionary model: the RIA retains full control over implementation and maintains the client relationship. We provide the research, the methodology, and the quarterly guidance.

The Long-Term Vision

We believe that total yield thinking — capturing both dividend and buyback yield as equity income — should become the standard framework for income-oriented investors. As companies continue to shift capital return toward buybacks, strategies that ignore buyback yield will become progressively less representative of how the equity market actually works.

Our goal is to help bring this framework into mainstream investment practice, starting with RIAs and eventually through broader investment products.