Shares of Companies Who Jettison Employees Outperform the Indices

“Companies seem to have found a sure-fire way to lift their stock prices: jettison their employees.

A total of 14 companies in the S&P 500 have erased jobs in each of their past five fiscal years.

And those companies’ shares have outperformed the index, USA Today reports.

The stocks increased 18.8 on average over the past year, besting the 15.5 percent rise for the S&P 500, according to the paper and S&P Capital IQ. Over the past five years, the job cutters lead the index 269 percent to 103 percent.

To be sure, not all the job losses stem from layoffs, USA Today notes. Some come from restructurings and divestitures.

In any case, leading the 14 companies in reducing headcount over the last five years is telecommunications equipment maker Motorola Solutions. Its workforce dropped 67 percent during the period, and its stock gained 50 percent….”

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