Here's Why Shareholders May Consider Paying NewMarket Corporation's (NYSE:NEU) CEO A Little More

The decent performance at NewMarket Corporation (NYSE:NEU) recently will please most shareholders as they go into the AGM coming up on 22 April 2021. This would also be a chance for them to hear the board review the financial results, discuss future company strategy to further improve the business and vote on any resolutions such as executive remuneration. In our analysis below, we discuss why we think the CEO compensation looks acceptable and the case for a raise.

Check out our latest analysis for NewMarket

How Does Total Compensation For Teddy Gottwald Compare With Other Companies In The Industry?

According to our data, NewMarket Corporation has a market capitalization of US$4.2b, and paid its CEO total annual compensation worth US$3.1m over the year to December 2020. That is, the compensation was roughly the same as last year. While this analysis focuses on total compensation, it's worth acknowledging that the salary portion is lower, valued at US$1.1m.

On examining similar-sized companies in the industry with market capitalizations between US$2.0b and US$6.4b, we discovered that the median CEO total compensation of that group was US$5.6m. Accordingly, NewMarket pays its CEO under the industry median. Furthermore, Teddy Gottwald directly owns US$217m worth of shares in the company, implying that they are deeply invested in the company's success.

Talking in terms of the industry, salary represented approximately 17% of total compensation out of all the companies we analyzed, while other remuneration made up 83% of the pie. It's interesting to note that NewMarket pays out a greater portion of remuneration through salary, compared to the industry. If total compensation is slanted towards non-salary benefits, it indicates that CEO pay is linked to company performance.

A Look at NewMarket Corporation's Growth Numbers

NewMarket Corporation has seen its earnings per share (EPS) increase by 15% a year over the past three years. Its revenue is down 8.2% over the previous year.

This demonstrates that the company has been improving recently and is good news for the shareholders. The lack of revenue growth isn't ideal, but it is the bottom line that counts most in business. 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 NewMarket Corporation Been A Good Investment?

NewMarket Corporation has not done too badly by shareholders, with a total return of 0.7%, over three years. It would be nice to see that metric improve in the future. 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...

Overall, the company hasn't done too poorly performance-wise, but we would like to see some improvement. If it manages to keep up the current streak, CEO remuneration could well be one of shareholders' least concerns. In fact, strategic decisions that could impact the future of the business might be a far more interesting topic for investors as it would help them set their longer-term expectations.

CEO compensation can have a massive impact on performance, but it's just one element. That's why we did some digging and identified 1 warning sign for NewMarket that investors should think about before committing capital to this stock.

Switching gears from NewMarket, 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. 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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