Which Mega Caps Are Buying Their Own Stock?

The graph below was produced by Capital Market Labs.

Stock repurchases have been at or near all-time highs for a year now and some pundits have questioned if a part of the bull market run has been artificially generated by this phenomenon.

A list of all North American mega-caps and their buyback activity (per dollar of assets) paints a better picture.

Other than Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON), the next top five stocks -- Mastercard Inc (NYSE: MA), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG), 3M Co (NYSE: MMM), The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE: HD) -- have seen (on average) a 170 percent rise in stock price, coinciding with an 1,800 percent rise in stock repurchases relative to assets over the last few years.

Ophir Gottlieb can be found on Twitter @ophirgottlieb.