It's Unlikely That Shareholders Will Increase Genus plc's (LON:GNS) Compensation By Much This Year

CEO Stephen Wilson has done a decent job of delivering relatively good performance at Genus plc (LON:GNS) recently. As shareholders go into the upcoming AGM on 23 November 2022, CEO compensation will probably not be their focus, but rather the steps management will take to continue the growth momentum. Based on our analysis of the data below, we think CEO compensation seems reasonable for now.

Check out the opportunities and risks within the GB Biotechs industry.

Comparing Genus plc's CEO Compensation With The Industry

Our data indicates that Genus plc has a market capitalization of UK£2.0b, and total annual CEO compensation was reported as UK£1.3m for the year to June 2022. We note that's a decrease of 55% compared to last year. While we always look at total compensation first, our analysis shows that the salary component is less, at UK£614k.

On comparing similar companies from the same industry with market caps ranging from UK£842m to UK£2.7b, we found that the median CEO total compensation was UK£1.3m. So it looks like Genus compensates Stephen Wilson in line with the median for the industry. What's more, Stephen Wilson holds UK£2.4m worth of shares in the company in their own name, indicating that they have a lot of skin in the game.

Component	2022	2021	Proportion (2022)
Salary	UK£614k	UK£600k	46%
Other	UK£712k	UK£2.3m	54%
Total Compensation	UK£1.3m	UK£2.9m	100%

Talking in terms of the industry, salary represented approximately 66% of total compensation out of all the companies we analyzed, while other remuneration made up 34% of the pie. It's interesting to note that Genus allocates a smaller portion of compensation to salary in comparison to the broader industry. It's important to note that a slant towards non-salary compensation suggests that total pay is tied to the company's performance.

Genus plc's Growth

Genus plc's earnings per share (EPS) grew 72% per year over the last three years. In the last year, its revenue is up 3.3%.

Overall this is a positive result for shareholders, showing that the company has improved in recent years. It's good to see a bit of revenue growth, as this suggests the business is able to grow sustainably. Moving away from current form for a second, it could be important to check this free visual depiction of what analysts expect for the future.

Has Genus plc Been A Good Investment?

Genus plc has generated a total shareholder return of 4.9% over three years, so most shareholders wouldn't be too disappointed. Although, there's always room to improve. As a result, investors in the company might be reluctant about agreeing to increase CEO pay in the future, before seeing an improvement on their returns.

In Summary...

Given that the company's overall performance has been reasonable, the CEO remuneration policy might not be shareholders' central point of focus in the upcoming AGM. In saying that, any proposed increase to CEO compensation will still be assessed on how reasonable it is based on performance and industry benchmarks.

While it is important to pay attention to CEO remuneration, investors should also consider other elements of the business. That's why we did some digging and identified 1 warning sign for Genus that investors should think about before committing capital to this stock.

Switching gears from Genus, if you're hunting for a pristine balance sheet and premium returns, this free list of high return, low debt companies is a great place to look.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.