How can a disciplined capital return strategy influence performance? Get to know the S&P 500 Resilient Shareholder Yield Index.
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Tracking Shareholder Yield with Indices
How can a disciplined capital return strategy influence performance? Companies can return value to shareholders in three main ways:
Dividends
Share buybacks
Debt reduction
Together, these represent the total capital returned to shareholders. When divided by a company’s market capitalization, this becomes shareholder yield. Shareholder yield provides a holistic and flexible view of capital return across market cycles and stages of the corporate life cycle. The S&P 500® Resilient Shareholder Yield Index applies this concept within the S&P 500 universe by selecting 100 companies with high shareholder yields but also robust fundamentals relative to peers.
Historically, this combination has delivered a differentiated risk/return profile. Since June 2000, back-tested data shows the index would have outperformed the S&P 500 by around 270 basis points per annum, with lower volatility—capturing much of the upside while demonstrating downside protection during market stress. These characteristics may be especially relevant in environments shaped by inflation, higher interest rates and macroeconomic uncertainty. More recently, during the volatile period from the end of December 2025 to the end of March 2026, the S&P 500 Resilient Shareholder Yield Index outperformed its benchmark universe by over 11%, posting a gain of 6.28% versus a loss of 4.73% for the S&P 500—highlighting why resilience is a defining feature of the strategy.
So how does the index work?
The index excludes companies with negative shareholder yield and excessively high yields, indicators that may signal financial stress. Eligible companies are then assessed using a composite score based on four metrics:
Shareholder yield
Capital return growth
Return on equity
Free cash flow to debt
The composite score helps identify companies by both the level and potential durability of shareholder returns, while seeking to enhance the quality and financial health of constituents relative to industry peers.
The index has broad tilts toward value and quality and an emphasis on resilience—companies able to return capital consistently without compromising their long‑term financial health. Constituents are weighted using float‑adjusted market capitalization multiplied by shareholder yield, increasing tilts to companies that have returned more capital to shareholders, while maintaining diversification across the S&P 500. The end result is a rules‑based index that tracks companies with a differentiated return profile and a demonstrated track record of balancing income, capital discipline and resilience across varying market environments.
To learn more about the S&P 500 Resilient Shareholder Yield Index, including the latest index performance, visit spglobal.com/spdji.
