Yahoo Finance Is William Lyon Homes (NYSE:WLH) Overpaying Its CEO?
Matt Zaist became the CEO of William Lyon Homes (NYSE:WLH) in 2015. This report will, first, examine the CEO compensation levels in comparison to CEO compensation at companies of similar size. After that, we will consider the growth in the business. And finally – as a second measure of performance – we will look at the returns shareholders have received over the last few years. This process should give us an idea about how appropriately the CEO is paid.
Check out our latest analysis for William Lyon Homes
How Does Matt Zaist’s Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?
At the time of writing our data says that William Lyon Homes has a market cap of US$452m, and is paying total annual CEO compensation of US$5.4m. That’s a notable increase of 65% on last year. When we examined a selection of companies with market caps ranging from US$200m to US$800m, we found the median CEO compensation was US$1.5m.
It would therefore appear that William Lyon Homes pays Matt Zaist more than the median CEO remuneration at companies of a similar size, in the same market. However, this fact alone doesn’t mean the remuneration is too high. A closer look at the performance of the underlying business will give us a better idea about whether the pay is particularly generous.
You can see a visual representation of the CEO compensation at William Lyon Homes, below.
Is William Lyon Homes Growing?
Over the last three years William Lyon Homes has grown its earnings per share (EPS) by an average of 4.3% per year. In the last year, its revenue is up 25%.
This revenue growth could really point to a brighter future. And the improvement in earnings per share is modest but respectable. Although we’ll stop short of calling the stock a top performer, we think the company has potential.
Shareholders might be interested in this free visualization of analyst forecasts. .
Has William Lyon Homes Been A Good Investment?
With a three year total loss of 32%, William Lyon Homes would certainly have some dissatisfied shareholders. It therefore might be upsetting for shareholders if the CEO were paid generously.
In Summary…
We compared total CEO remuneration at William Lyon Homes with the amount paid at companies with a similar market capitalization. We found that it pays well over the median amount paid in the benchmark group.
While we have not been overly impressed by the business performance, the shareholder returns, over three years, have been disappointing. This contrasts with the growth in CEO remuneration, in the last year. Considering this, we have the opinion that the CEO pay is more on the generous side, than the modest side.
Or you might prefer this data-rich interactive visualization of historic revenue and earnings.
To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
