Should You Worry About BNK Petroleum Inc.'s (TSE:BKX) CEO Salary Level?

Wolf Regener became the CEO of BNK Petroleum Inc. (TSE:BKX) in 2008. 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. This method should give us information to assess how appropriately the company pays the CEO.

Check out our latest analysis for BNK Petroleum

How Does Wolf Regener's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?

At the time of writing our data says that BNK Petroleum Inc. has a market cap of CA$45m, and is paying total annual CEO compensation of US$459k. (This number is for the twelve months until December 2018). While we always look at total compensation first, we note that the salary component is less, at US$376k. We examined a group of similar sized companies, with market capitalizations of below US$200m. The median CEO total compensation in that group is US$100k.

It would therefore appear that BNK Petroleum Inc. pays Wolf Regener 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 BNK Petroleum has changed from year to year.

Is BNK Petroleum Inc. Growing?

BNK Petroleum Inc. has increased its earnings per share (EPS) by an average of 79% a year, over the last three years (using a line of best fit). It achieved revenue growth of 7.7% over the last year.

This demonstrates that the company has been improving recently. A good result. It's also good to see modest revenue growth, suggesting the underlying business is healthy.

Has BNK Petroleum Inc. Been A Good Investment?

Since shareholders would have lost about 13% over three years, some BNK Petroleum Inc. shareholders would surely be feeling negative emotions. This suggests it would be unwise for the company to pay the CEO too generously.

In Summary...

We compared the total CEO remuneration paid by BNK Petroleum Inc., and compared it to remuneration at a group of similar sized companies. As discussed above, we discovered that the company pays more than the median of that group.

However we must not forget that the EPS growth has been very strong over three years. However, the returns to investors are far less impressive, over the same period. While EPS is positive, we'd say shareholders would want better returns before the CEO is paid much more. Shareholders may want to check for free if BNK Petroleum insiders are buying or selling shares.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.

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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. Thank you for reading.