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Key takeaways from Amazon’s latest shareholder meeting

Yahoo Finance's Allie Garfinkle joins the Live show to detail what was addressed at Amazon's shareholder meeting, including labor unions, shareholder proposals, and what these shareholder proposals mean.

Video Transcript

DAVE BRIGGS: Amazon shares down more than 30% year to date. Much to discuss at the annual shareholder meeting, including a $200 million payday for CEO Andy Jassy, a stock split, and more than a dozen investor resolutions. Allie Garfinkle covering it all for us. Allie, what went down?

ALLIE GARFINKLE: Hey, Dave. So Amazon's annual meeting was eventful, to say the least. The company saw a wave of 15 investor-led shareholder proposals focusing on a wide range of issues, environmental concerns, lobbying, workers' safety. And all 15 of those shareholder investor led proposals were rejected, though, as you said, Andy Jassy's executive compensation package was approved.

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The expert on [INAUDIBLE] say that rejected shareholder proposals don't mean the end of a conversation. Now, as it turns out, even when they pass, shareholder proposals are not legally binding, which sort of begs the question, why bother? And the answer is actually pretty simple, Dave. It's the fact that shareholder proposals can serve as a bellwether, a very public pointing out of a company's ailments, risks, flaws. Experts say that when that happens, especially on this scale, it behooves the board to pay attention.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: So, then, Allie, if a shareholder proposal isn't legally binding then, what power does it really have? How much weight should we give to it?

ALLIE GARFINKLE: That's a great question, Rachelle. So it comes down to who's paying attention. For one, institutional investors. Institutional investors like BlackRock and Vanguard have doubled down on ESG issues in recent years. And these institutions, I don't have to tell you, often have major stakes in big tech. And Amazon is no different. BlackRock and Vanguard are actually two of Amazon's largest shareholders.

At the same time, you also have analysts who've been increasingly following the issues that these shareholder proposals bring up. And there have been even cases where an analyst has downgraded a stock due to ESG concerns that have been brought up by shareholders.

So, ultimately, the last thing to note is that these proposals are ultimately indicative of shareholder sentiment. And if there's enough shareholder dissatisfaction-- and activists can come in really shaking things up, one might say-- experts are saying that though that situation is unlikely at Amazon, the investor dissatisfaction does matter, and never say never.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: Indeed. Well, thank you very much, Yahoo Finance's own Allie Garfinkle.