Yahoo Finance Is Ryerson Holding Corporation's (NYSE:RYI) CEO Salary Justified?
Eddie Lehner became the CEO of Ryerson Holding Corporation (NYSE:RYI) in 2015. First, this article will compare CEO compensation with compensation at similar sized companies. Next, we'll consider growth that the business demonstrates. Third, we'll reflect on the total return to shareholders over three years, as a second measure of business performance. This process should give us an idea about how appropriately the CEO is paid.
See our latest analysis for Ryerson Holding
How Does Eddie Lehner's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?
At the time of writing, our data says that Ryerson Holding Corporation has a market cap of US$450m, and reported total annual CEO compensation of US$4.2m for the year to December 2018. While this analysis focuses on total compensation, it's worth noting the salary is lower, valued at US$863k. Importantly, there may be performance hurdles relating to the non-salary component of the total compensation. As part of our analysis we looked at companies in the same jurisdiction, with market capitalizations of US$200m to US$800m. The median total CEO compensation was US$1.7m.
As you can see, Eddie Lehner is paid more than the median CEO pay at companies of a similar size, in the same market. However, this does not necessarily mean Ryerson Holding Corporation is paying too much. We can get a better idea of how generous the pay is by looking at the performance of the underlying business.
The graphic below shows how CEO compensation at Ryerson Holding has changed from year to year.
Is Ryerson Holding Corporation Growing?
Over the last three years Ryerson Holding Corporation has grown its earnings per share (EPS) by an average of 75% per year (using a line of best fit). It achieved revenue growth of 16% over the last year.
Overall this is a positive result for shareholders, showing that the company has improved in recent years. It's also good to see decent revenue growth in the last year, suggesting the business is healthy and growing. Shareholders might be interested in this free visualization of analyst forecasts.
Has Ryerson Holding Corporation Been A Good Investment?
With a three year total loss of 24%, Ryerson Holding Corporation would certainly have some dissatisfied shareholders. This suggests it would be unwise for the company to pay the CEO too generously.
In Summary...
We examined the amount Ryerson Holding Corporation pays its CEO, and compared it to the amount paid by similar sized companies. As discussed above, we discovered that the company pays more than the median of that group.
However, the earnings per share growth over three years is certainly impressive. On the other hand returns to investors over the same period have probably disappointed many. One might thus conclude that it would be better if the company waited until growth is reflected in the share price, before increasing CEO compensation. Shareholders may want to check for free if Ryerson Holding insiders are buying or selling shares.
If you want to buy a stock that is better than Ryerson Holding, this free list of high return, low debt companies is a great place to look.
If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.
We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
