WH Smith Management

Management criteria checks 2/4

WH Smith's CEO is Carl Cowling, appointed in Nov 2019, has a tenure of 5.08 years. total yearly compensation is £2.66M, comprised of 24.2% salary and 75.8% bonuses, including company stock and options. directly owns 0.048% of the company’s shares, worth €869.78K. The average tenure of the management team and the board of directors is 5.1 years and 1.8 years respectively.

Key information

Carl Cowling

Chief executive officer

UK£2.7m

Total compensation

CEO salary percentage24.2%
CEO tenure5.1yrs
CEO ownership0.05%
Management average tenure5.1yrs
Board average tenure1.8yrs

Recent management updates

Recent updates

CEO Compensation Analysis

How has Carl Cowling's remuneration changed compared to WH Smith's earnings?
DateTotal CompensationSalaryCompany Earnings
Aug 31 2024UK£3mUK£644k

UK£67m

May 31 2024n/an/a

UK£66m

Feb 29 2024n/an/a

UK£64m

Nov 30 2023n/an/a

UK£72m

Aug 31 2023UK£3mUK£610k

UK£79m

May 31 2023n/an/a

UK£73m

Feb 28 2023n/an/a

UK£67m

Nov 30 2022n/an/a

UK£57m

Aug 31 2022UK£2mUK£585k

UK£47m

May 31 2022n/an/a

UK£6m

Feb 28 2022n/an/a

-UK£35m

Nov 30 2021n/an/a

-UK£58m

Aug 31 2021UK£1mUK£550k

-UK£82m

May 31 2021n/an/a

-UK£201m

Feb 28 2021n/an/a

-UK£321m

Nov 30 2020n/an/a

-UK£280m

Aug 31 2020UK£608kUK£482k

-UK£239m

May 31 2020n/an/a

-UK£68m

Feb 29 2020n/an/a

UK£102m

Nov 30 2019n/an/a

UK£104m

Aug 31 2019UK£2mUK£201k

UK£106m

Compensation vs Market: Carl's total compensation ($USD3.34M) is above average for companies of similar size in the German market ($USD1.58M).

Compensation vs Earnings: Carl's compensation has been consistent with company performance over the past year.


CEO

Carl Cowling (51 yo)

5.1yrs

Tenure

UK£2,659,000

Compensation

Mr. Carl David Cowling has been Group Chief Executive at WH Smith PLC since November 01, 2019. Mr. Cowling served as Managing Director of High Street Business at WH Smith PLC since 2017 until November 01,...


Leadership Team

NamePositionTenureCompensationOwnership
Carl Cowling
Group Chief Executive & Director5.1yrsUK£2.66m0.048%
€ 869.8k
Maxwell Leslie Izzard
COO, CFO & Directorless than a yearno datano data
Ian Houghton
Legal Director & Company Secretary26.3yrsno datano data

5.1yrs

Average Tenure

51yo

Average Age

Experienced Management: 21Q's management team is seasoned and experienced (5.1 years average tenure).


Board Members

NamePositionTenureCompensationOwnership
Carl Cowling
Group Chief Executive & Director5.8yrsUK£2.66m0.048%
€ 869.8k
Maxwell Leslie Izzard
COO, CFO & Directorno datano datano data
Annette Court
Independent Chairman2.3yrsUK£318.00k0.0054%
€ 97.9k
Nicola Dulieu
Independent Non-Executive Director4.3yrsUK£88.00k0.0019%
€ 35.5k
Helen Rose
Non-Executive Directorless than a yearUK£11.00kno data
Situl Jobanputra
Non-Executive Directorless than a yearUK£40.00k0.00097%
€ 17.7k
Simon Emeny
Senior Independent Director5.8yrsUK£80.00kno data
Colette Burke
Independent Non-Executive Director1.4yrsUK£64.00kno data

1.8yrs

Average Tenure

57yo

Average Age

Experienced Board: 21Q's board of directors are not considered experienced ( 1.8 years average tenure), which suggests a new board.


Company Analysis and Financial Data Status

DataLast Updated (UTC time)
Company Analysis2024/12/23 11:15
End of Day Share Price 2024/12/20 00:00
Earnings2024/08/31
Annual Earnings2024/08/31

Data Sources

The data used in our company analysis is from S&P Global Market Intelligence LLC. The following data is used in our analysis model to generate this report. Data is normalised which can introduce a delay from the source being available.

PackageDataTimeframeExample US Source *
Company Financials10 years
  • Income statement
  • Cash flow statement
  • Balance sheet
Analyst Consensus Estimates+3 years
  • Forecast financials
  • Analyst price targets
Market Prices30 years
  • Stock prices
  • Dividends, Splits and Actions
Ownership10 years
  • Top shareholders
  • Insider trading
Management10 years
  • Leadership team
  • Board of directors
Key Developments10 years
  • Company announcements

* example for US securities, for non-US equivalent regulatory forms and sources are used.

Unless specified all financial data is based on a yearly period but updated quarterly. This is known as Trailing Twelve Month (TTM) or Last Twelve Month (LTM) Data. Learn more here.

Analysis Model and Snowflake

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Learn about the world class team who designed and built the Simply Wall St analysis model.

Industry and Sector Metrics

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Analyst Sources

WH Smith PLC is covered by 35 analysts. 11 of those analysts submitted the estimates of revenue or earnings used as inputs to our report. Analysts submissions are updated throughout the day.

AnalystInstitution
Richard TaylorBarclays
Benjamin Sandland-TaylorBerenberg
Ian MacdougallBlue Oar Securities