We think Citizens Holding Company's (NASDAQ:CIZN) CEO May Struggle To See Much Of A Pay Rise This Year

Performance at Citizens Holding Company (NASDAQ:CIZN) has been reasonably good and CEO Greg McKee has done a decent job of steering the company in the right direction. In light of this performance, CEO compensation will probably not be the main focus for shareholders as they go into the AGM on 27 April 2021. Based on our analysis of the data below, we think CEO compensation seems reasonable for now.

Check out our latest analysis for Citizens Holding

Comparing Citizens Holding Company's CEO Compensation With the industry

At the time of writing, our data shows that Citizens Holding Company has a market capitalization of US$110m, and reported total annual CEO compensation of US$543k for the year to December 2020. Notably, that's an increase of 13% over the year before. In particular, the salary of US$321.4k, makes up a fairly large portion of the total compensation being paid to the CEO.

On comparing similar-sized companies in the industry with market capitalizations below US$200m, we found that the median total CEO compensation was US$572k. So it looks like Citizens Holding compensates Greg McKee in line with the median for the industry. Moreover, Greg McKee also holds US$1.1m worth of Citizens Holding stock directly under their own name, which reveals to us that they have a significant personal stake in the company.

Component	2020	2019	Proportion (2020)
Salary	US$321k	US$306k	59%
Other	US$222k	US$173k	41%
Total Compensation	US$543k	US$479k	100%

On an industry level, around 42% of total compensation represents salary and 58% is other remuneration. Citizens Holding pays out 59% of remuneration in the form of a salary, significantly higher than the industry average. If total compensation veers towards salary, it suggests that the variable portion - which is generally tied to performance, is lower.

A Look at Citizens Holding Company's Growth Numbers

Over the past three years, Citizens Holding Company has seen its earnings per share (EPS) grow by 18% per year. In the last year, its revenue is up 22%.

This demonstrates that the company has been improving recently and is good news for the shareholders. It's also good to see decent revenue growth in the last year, suggesting the business is healthy and growing. We don't have analyst forecasts, but you could get a better understanding of its growth by checking out this more detailed historical graph of earnings, revenue and cash flow.

Has Citizens Holding Company Been A Good Investment?

Citizens Holding Company has generated a total shareholder return of 1.9% over three years, so most shareholders wouldn't be too disappointed. Although, there's always room to improve. In light of that, investors might probably want to see an improvement on their returns before they feel generous about increasing the CEO remuneration.

In Summary...

The company's decent performance might have made most shareholders happy, possibly making CEO remuneration the least of the concerns to be discussed in the upcoming AGM. Despite the pleasing results, we still think that any proposed increases to CEO compensation will be examined based on a case by case basis and linked to performance outcomes.

CEO compensation can have a massive impact on performance, but it's just one element. We did our research and spotted 1 warning sign for Citizens Holding that investors should look into moving forward.

Arguably, business quality is much more important than CEO compensation levels. So check out this free list of interesting companies that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.

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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. 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.
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