If you’re feeling curious about how equity plan proposals are performing with shareholder votes, today’s blog has answers. Semler Brossy recently released their 2016 report on Trends in Equity Plan Proposals. Keep reading for some of the highlights.
Upward Trend in Failed Say-on-Pay Votes?
The number of companies each proxy cycle that have failed to obtain say-on-pay (“SOP”) approval from shareholders has remained fairly constant since SOP became mandatory 2011. This time last year, only two of the Russell 3,000 companies had failed their SOP vote. This year, that number has increased to five companies so far. Does this signify an uptick in SOP failures? It appears so, because the number of companies with failed votes so far in 2016 amounts to 3.5%, marking the first time more than 3% of Russell 3000 companies have failed at this time in the cycle to obtain an affirmative vote. Whether this is an anomaly year, or an indicator of a trend, time will tell.
Correlation Between Affirmative Say-on-Pay and Stock Plan Proposal Approvals
One correlation that appears to be rising is that companies who receive a pass Say-on-Pay vote also receive strong support for their equity plan proposals. Since SOP was adopted, the percentage of equity plan proposals that receive affirmative support relative to passing SOP votes has steadily increased (from 83% in 2011 to 90% in 2015). According to the Semler Brossy report,
Similarly, average vote support for equity plans at companies that receive an ISS ‘For’ recommendation has increased over time; this may suggest that ISS voting policies have become well-aligned with shareholder preferences
Companies that fail Say on Pay tend to have significantly lower support for their equity plan proposals, indicating that shareholders are assessing both proposals under similar lenses
A couple of final data points that seem to bring this all full circle are that ISS has recommended that shareholders vote “Against” Say-on-Pay at 10% of the companies it’s assessed so far in 2016, and, on top of that, shareholder support was 32% lower at companies with an ISS “Against” vote. This seems to suggest that companies looking for shareholder support in other areas, such as equity plan proposals, are more likely to gain shareholder support when ISS has recommended an affirmative Say-on-Pay vote. At minimum, there is an intertwining of all these factors and how they drive shareholder support.
For more interesting Say-on-Pay and equity plan proposal trends, view the full Semler Brossy report.
-Jenn
We’ve seen quite a bit of evolution in the mix of equity incentive compensation vehicles and terms over the last decade. The use of stock awards has surpassed that of stock options. Performance based compensation continues on its upward rise towards total prevalence. Another change that has slowly gained traction in the wake of Dodd-Frank, Say-on-Pay, and other measures is what I’m terming a slow death for the time based vesting of options and awards, or, as some call it, “pay for pulse.”
In a recent Equilar blog titled “Companies Just Say No to “Pay for Pulse,” the author cites a recent study of Equilar 100 companies that found 70% of the executive pay mix was “at risk.” In another report (Equilar’s 2015 Equity Trends Report), “nearly 70% of S&P 1500 companies used performance awards in 2014, up from about 50% in 2010.” This is consistent with the trends that we’ve observed as well.
Equilar also suggested that a closer look at LTIPs revealed that performance awards (in the form of units, stock, and options) comprised almost 80% of individual incentive plans. Equity awards that vest over time—or time-based awards—made up the remainder. Additionally, “slightly more than 10% of the Fortune 500—or 51 companies—used performance equity exclusively. The list varied by industry, but notably included multiple energy, retail and media companies.”
We really didn’t need more evidence to know that performance awards appear to have found a long term home in the equity compensation mix. What remains not entirely clear at this point is the fate of time based vesting for options and awards. There is an argument that while performance based incentives work well for executives – those with the most control over corporate decisions and strategy – there may still be benefit to offering time based vesting awards to those farther down in the ranks of the organization where some job functions may be more task oriented and less strategic in nature.
Time will tell whether time-based vesting is on its way out the door, or will stand the test of time (no pun intended) and remain a smaller, but still present, component of company stock plans. Is there still a home for “pay for pulse” in the equity compensation vesting mix?
We have a great webcast planned on the very relevant topic of performance awards and their evolution. On April 7th, Performance Awards: An Ever Changing Landscape will include Jillian Forusz from Adobe Systems Inc., Belen Gomez from Equilar, Dan Kapinos from Aon Hewitt and Robert Purser from E*TRADE. We’ve also got a podcast interview with Belen Gomez from Equilar going up on our website on Monday, March 28th. If you subscribe to the podcast now, you’ll get an email notification when Belen’s interview is up.
-Jenn
Tags: equity mix, performance awards, time based vesting, vesting