Yahoo Finance Should You Worry About Superior Plus Corp’s (TSE:SPB) CEO Pay Cheque?
In 2011 Luc Desjardins was appointed CEO of Superior Plus Corp (TSE:SPB). First, this article will compare CEO compensation with compensation at similar sized companies. Then we’ll look at a snap shot of the business growth. And finally we will reflect on how common stockholders have fared in the last few years, as a secondary measure of performance. The aim of all this is to consider the appropriateness of CEO pay levels.
View our latest analysis for Superior Plus
How Does Luc Desjardins’s Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?
At the time of writing our data says that Superior Plus Corp has a market cap of CA$1.8b, and is paying total annual CEO compensation of CA$4.1m. (This is based on the year to 2017). We think total compensation is more important but we note that the CEO salary is lower, at CA$890k. As part of our analysis we looked at companies in the same jurisdiction, with market capitalizations of CA$1.3b to CA$4.3b. The median total CEO compensation was CA$2.9m.
It would therefore appear that Superior Plus Corp pays Luc Desjardins 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. 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 Superior Plus has changed from year to year.
Is Superior Plus Corp Growing?
Over the last three years Superior Plus Corp has shrunk its earnings per share by an average of 40% per year. It achieved revenue growth of 19% over the last year.
Few shareholders would be pleased to read that earnings per share are lower over three years. There’s no doubt that the silver lining is that revenue is up. But it isn’t sufficiently fast growth to overlook the fact that earnings per share has gone backwards over three years. It’s hard to argue the company is firing on all cylinders, so shareholders might be averse to high CEO remuneration.
You might want to check this free visual report on analyst forecasts for future earnings.
Has Superior Plus Corp Been A Good Investment?
Superior Plus Corp has served shareholders reasonably well, with a total return of 31% over three years. But they probably wouldn’t be so happy as to think the CEO should be paid more than is normal, for companies around this size.
In Summary…
We examined the amount Superior Plus Corp pays its CEO, and compared it to the amount paid by similar sized companies. We found that it pays well over the median amount paid in the benchmark group.
We think many shareholders would be underwhelmed with the business growth over the last three years.
And while shareholder returns have been respectable, they have hardly been superb. So you may want to delve deeper, because we don’t think the CEO pay is too low. Whatever your view on compensation, you might want to check if insiders are buying or selling Superior Plus shares (free trial).
Or you could feast your eyes on this interactive graph depicting past earnings, cash flow and revenue.
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.
