How Much is Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.'s (NYSE:J) CEO Getting Paid?

Steve Demetriou became the CEO of Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (NYSE:J) in 2015. This report will, first, examine the CEO compensation levels in comparison to CEO compensation at other big companies. Next, we'll consider growth that the business demonstrates. And finally we will reflect on how common stockholders have fared in the last few years, as a secondary measure of performance. The aim of all this is to consider the appropriateness of CEO pay levels.

View our latest analysis for Jacobs Engineering Group

How Does Steve Demetriou's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?

According to our data, Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has a market capitalization of US$11b, and paid its CEO total annual compensation worth US$15m over the year to September 2019. While we always look at total compensation first, we note that the salary component is less, at US$1.3m. Importantly, there may be performance hurdles relating to the non-salary component of the total compensation. We looked at a group of companies with market capitalizations over US$8.0b and the median CEO total compensation was US$12m. There aren't very many mega-cap companies, so we had to take a wide range to get a meaningful comparison figure.

Next, let's break down remuneration compositions to understand how the industry and company compare with each other. On an industry level, roughly 19% of total compensation represents salary and 81% is other remuneration. Readers will want to know that Jacobs Engineering Group pays a modest slice of remuneration through salary, as compared to the wider sector.

So Steve Demetriou is paid around the average of the companies we looked at. While this data point isn't particularly informative alone, it gains more meaning when considered with business performance. You can see a visual representation of the CEO compensation at Jacobs Engineering Group, below.

Is Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. Growing?

On average over the last three years, Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has seen earnings per share (EPS) move in a favourable direction by 5.3% each year (using a line of best fit). It achieved revenue growth of 9.7% over the last year.

I would argue that the improvement in revenue isn't particularly impressive, but the modest improvement in EPS is good. Considering these factors I'd say performance has been pretty decent, though not amazing. You might want to check this free visual report on analyst forecasts for future earnings.

Has Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. Been A Good Investment?

I think that the total shareholder return of 49%, over three years, would leave most Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. shareholders smiling. So they may not be at all concerned if the CEO were to be paid more than is normal for companies around the same size.

In Summary...

Steve Demetriou is paid around the same as most CEOs of large companies.

The company isn't showing particularly great growth, but shareholder returns have been pleasing. So we can conclude that on this analysis the CEO compensation seems pretty sound. Shifting gears from CEO pay for a second, we've picked out 2 warning signs for Jacobs Engineering Group that investors should be aware of in a dynamic business environment.

Important note: Jacobs Engineering Group may not be the best stock to buy. You might find something better in this list of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt.

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.

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