Advancing the Investment World
Toward Total Yield

The Core Idea

Over the past four decades, companies have increasingly channeled capital returns to shareholders through share buybacks rather than dividends. Dividend yields across the S&P 500 have dropped from roughly 4–5% in prior decades to approximately 1.3% today. Yet total capital return — dividends plus buybacks — has remained comparatively stable, averaging around 3.6% per year over the past 10 years.

Income strategies constructed exclusively around dividend yield have adapted to this shift by concentrating into a shrinking and increasingly expensive group of high-dividend payers. We believe there is a more effective path.

When an investor participates pro rata in a share buyback — tendering their proportional share back to the company — the economic outcome mirrors a dividend. They retain the same ownership stake and receive cash. Buyback yield is equity income. Treating it as invisible in an income strategy means ignoring half the equation.

What We Do

BBY Investments 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 — blending dividend yield and buyback yield into a single total yield framework.

We currently offer two strategies:

• BBY High Total Yield — identifies S&P 500 companies with the highest total shareholder yield (dividend yield plus buyback yield), producing a focused portfolio of approximately 115 companies.
• BBY Total Yield Achievers — targets S&P 500 companies with reliable, above-average total shareholder yield (dividend yield plus buyback yield), producing a portfolio of approximately 167 companies.

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 platforms like Orion or comparable tools. RIAs report AUM utilizing the strategy and are invoiced accordingly.

This is a non-discretionary arrangement: the RIA retains complete control over implementation and preserves the client relationship. We supply the research, the methodology, and the quarterly guidance.

The Long-Term Vision

We believe that total yield thinking — recognizing both dividend and buyback yield as legitimate components of equity income — should become the standard framework for income-oriented investors. As companies continue to shift capital return toward repurchases, strategies that ignore buyback yield will grow progressively less representative of how equity markets actually operate.

Our mission is to help bring this framework into mainstream investment practice, beginning with RIAs and expanding over time into broader investment products.