GM, Wells Fargo among stocks with high total yields, Barron’s says

Many investors like to buy companies that return gobs of cash to investors through a combination of stock repurchases and dividends. A high return of capital to shareholders can be doubly favorable. It’s an indicator of strong free-cash-flow generation and shows that companies are willing to share that bounty with their investor base. It can also be a strong management endorsement of the stock, Andrew Bary writes in this week’s edition of Barron’s. General Motors (GM), Marathon Petroleum (MPC), Wells Fargo (WFC), and AIG (AIG) are up near the top of the list among companies in the S&P 500 index, the author notes. They have total yields (buyback yield plus dividend yield) of more than 15% in the past 12 months, according to research from Goldman Sachs. Rounding out a list of a dozen companies with total yields of 10% or more are State Street (STT), Jabil (JBL), Expedia (EXPE), MGM Resorts International (MGM), Archer Daniels-Midland (ADM), Altria Group (MO), Dupont (DD), and Comcast (CMCSK) (CMCSA).