Shibui Finance is a free shareholder yield screener that computes dividends, buybacks, and debt paydown as a percentage of market cap across 10,000+ US stocks at once. It uses trailing twelve months of cash flow data, so you can rank the entire market by total capital returned to shareholders, not just dividend yield. No other free screener computes all three components.
Meb Faber published "Shareholder Yield" in 2013 with a simple argument: dividend yield alone understates what companies return to shareholders. Buybacks have outweighed dividends in most years since 2000. A company paying no dividend but buying back 10% of its shares annually is returning more capital than a 3% dividend payer, yet it scores zero on every dividend screen. Shareholder Yield fixes this by adding two components: buyback yield (net share repurchases as a percentage of market cap) and debt paydown yield (net debt reduction as a percentage of market cap). On Shibui, Claude computes all three components from trailing twelve months of cash flow data and ranks the entire market. No other free screener does this. For a step-by-step walkthrough, see the Shareholder Yield screening guide.
What the screener checks
Three-component yield
Dividend yield plus buyback yield plus debt paydown yield, each computed from trailing twelve months of cash flow data. See the full capital return picture, not just the dividend component that traditional screeners show.
Dividend trap detection
A high dividend yield funded by share issuance is a trap: the company pays cash with one hand and dilutes you with the other. Shareholder Yield exposes this by netting buybacks against issuance. Negative buyback yield means dilution.
Historical tracking
Track how a company's capital return mix shifts over time. Is it moving from dividends to buybacks? Is debt paydown a one-time event or a sustained program? 20+ years of quarterly cash flow data.
Plain English
No spreadsheet formulas. Describe the screen you want and Claude computes all three yield components, ranks the market, and returns the results. Add valuation, quality, or sector filters in the same conversation.
The three components of capital return
Each component is computed from trailing twelve months (TTM) of cash flow data, divided by current market cap:
| Component | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Dividend Yield | Cash dividends paid to shareholders, as a percentage of market cap | TTM dividends paid (absolute value, since the field is stored as a negative number) |
| Buyback Yield | Net share repurchases as a percentage of market cap. Positive when the company buys back more shares than it issues. Zero when net issuing. | TTM net equity issuance/repayment. Negative values mean net buybacks. |
| Debt Paydown Yield | Net debt reduction as a percentage of market cap. Positive when the company is paying down more debt than it takes on. Zero when net borrowing. | TTM net debt issuance/repayment. Negative values mean net paydown. |
Shareholder Yield = Dividend Yield + Buyback Yield + Debt Paydown Yield
Caveats worth knowing. Debt paydown is ambiguous over short periods: if old debt matures in Q1 and new debt is issued in Q3, the TTM total can look like sustained paydown when the company is actually refinancing. Equity issuance for acquisitions inflates the buyback yield if repurchases happen in the same trailing period. The three components have different tax treatment for shareholders: dividends are taxed as income (or qualified dividend rates), buybacks are deferred until sale, and debt paydown does not reach shareholders directly. The metric works best as a relative ranking tool across the market, not as an absolute measure of cash returned.
Example screens
"From the last 4 quarters of cash flow data, compute the Shareholder Yield for all US common stocks above $2 billion market cap. Shareholder Yield = (TTM dividends paid + TTM net share buybacks + TTM net debt paydown) / market cap. Dividends paid is stored negative, use the absolute value. Net buybacks = absolute value of equity_issuance_repayment when negative (net buyer), zero when positive (net issuer). Net debt paydown = absolute value of debt_issuance_repayment when negative (net repayer), zero when positive (net borrower). Show the top 20 with all three components and total yield."
The full capital return screen. Claude sums each cash flow component over the four most recent quarters, divides by current market cap, and returns the total Shareholder Yield with a component breakdown. The top results typically include a mix of aggressive buyback programs (technology, consumer discretionary), high-dividend payers (utilities, REITs), and companies in active deleveraging mode (post-acquisition or restructuring). This combination is what dividend-only screeners miss entirely.
"From the last 4 quarters of cash flow data, find US stocks above $1 billion market cap with dividend yield above 4% but where the company is simultaneously diluting shareholders (equity_issuance_repayment is positive, meaning net share issuance exceeds buybacks). Show the dividend yield, the dilution rate (net equity issuance / market cap), and the net shareholder yield after dilution. These are potential dividend traps where the payout is funded by share issuance."
Dividend trap detection. A stock yielding 6% in dividends while issuing 4% in new shares is really yielding 2% after dilution. The dividend screen shows 6%. The Shareholder Yield screen shows the real number. This query surfaces companies where the dividend is partially or fully offset by share issuance, a pattern common in REITs, MLPs, and capital-intensive businesses that fund growth through secondary offerings.
"From the last 4 quarters of cash flow data, find US stocks above $2 billion market cap that pay zero dividends but return capital through buybacks at a rate above 5% of market cap (equity_issuance_repayment TTM is negative, with absolute value above 5% of market cap). Show the buyback yield, any debt paydown yield, and the total shareholder yield. These are hidden capital returners invisible to traditional dividend screens."
Hidden returners. These are companies that return substantial capital to shareholders entirely through buybacks and debt paydown, with no dividend at all. They show zero on every dividend screener. A technology company buying back 8% of its market cap annually while paying zero dividends is returning more capital than most dividend aristocrats. This query finds them.
How it compares to dividend screeners
Most screeners show dividend yield as a single field. None of them compute buyback yield or debt paydown yield, which together account for the majority of capital return in most years.
| Feature | Shibui | Finviz | Dividend.com | TIKR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free / $24.96/mo | Free | Free / $25/mo |
| Shareholder Yield (3 components) | Yes | No (dividend only) | No (dividend only) | No |
| Buyback yield | Yes | No | No | No |
| Debt paydown yield | Yes | No | No | No |
| Historical yield tracking | Yes (20+ years quarterly) | No | Limited | Limited |
| Natural language queries | Yes | No | No | No |
| Alerts / automation | No | No | Yes | No |
Shareholder Yield is one of the six metrics in O'Shaughnessy's Trending Value composite. For financial strength scoring, see the Piotroski F-Score screener. For quality compounding businesses, see the Quality Compounder screener. See the AI stock screener overview for how Shibui compares on other screening approaches.
Want to run this screen daily on a schedule? See the automated stock screener workflow for scheduling commands and prompt reliability patterns.
Frequently asked questions
What is Shareholder Yield?
Shareholder Yield measures total capital return to shareholders as a percentage of market cap. It combines three components: dividend yield (cash dividends), buyback yield (net share repurchases), and debt paydown yield (net debt reduction). Meb Faber popularized the concept in his 2013 book. The argument: dividend-only screens miss the majority of capital return for most companies because buybacks have outweighed dividends in most years since 2000. Shibui computes all three components from trailing twelve months of cash flow data across nearly 10,000+ US stocks.
Is there a free Shareholder Yield screener?
Shibui Finance is a free Shareholder Yield screener. Connect it to Claude (the free plan works) and describe the screen in plain English. Most screeners only show dividend yield. No other free tool computes all three components of shareholder yield (dividends, buybacks, debt paydown) across the full US market and lets you combine them with valuation, quality, or technical filters in one query.
How is Shareholder Yield different from Dividend Yield?
Dividend Yield captures only the cash dividend component. Shareholder Yield adds two more: buyback yield (net share repurchases as a percentage of market cap) and debt paydown yield (net debt reduction as a percentage of market cap). A company like Apple that pays a small dividend but repurchases tens of billions in shares annually shows a low dividend yield but a high shareholder yield. Dividend-only screens systematically miss these capital return programs.
Why does debt paydown count as shareholder return?
When a company pays down debt, it reduces interest expense and increases the share of future cash flows available to equity holders. It also reduces bankruptcy risk, which lowers the discount rate applied to the stock. Faber included debt paydown because it is a form of value creation that flows to shareholders even though no cash changes hands directly. The caveat: refinancing can look like paydown if old debt matures in one quarter and new debt is issued in another, so the metric works best over trailing twelve months rather than a single quarter.
Can you backtest Shareholder Yield strategies on Shibui?
Yes. Shibui has quarterly cash flow data going back 20 or more years for most companies. You can ask Claude to compute Shareholder Yield at any point in the past and check whether high-yield stocks outperformed. This is a historical backtest, not a forward-looking prediction. Survivorship bias applies since delisted companies are not in the dataset. Faber's original research found that sorting by Shareholder Yield outperformed sorting by Dividend Yield alone.
Does Finviz have a Shareholder Yield screener?
No. Finviz shows dividend yield as a screening filter but does not compute buyback yield or debt paydown yield. No free screener does. Shibui computes all three components from trailing twelve months of cash flow data and lets you combine them with any other filter in a single plain-English query.
Connect Shibui to Claude in 2 minutes
Shibui is free. Connect it to Claude (free or paid plan) and screen 10,000+ US stocks by Shareholder Yield: dividends, buybacks, and debt paydown combined in a single query.
Connect to Claude →