In a market that is struggling to find its footing, a group of stocks that investors may put more focus on are ones with strong free cash flow generation and shareholder friendly capital return programs. As we said last Friday, companies with strong balance sheets, healthy dividend payments, and consistent share repurchase programs are typically ones that can withstand and find support in volatile markets. We think this has largely played out this week, with the case in point being Apple, who bought back $20 billion worth of stock in its last reported quarter, viewed as a “safe-haven” as the reason for the stock’s notable outperformance.

Many companies in our portfolio routinely repurchase stock and increase their dividend payments year after year. These are traits we look for in many of our investment decisions. Below we have highlighted three names who have all announced new and improved capital return programs just in the past week.