In 2015 David Spitz was appointed CEO of ChannelAdvisor Corporation (NYSE:ECOM). First, this article will compare CEO compensation with compensation at similar sized companies. Then we'll look at a snap shot of the business growth. 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.
Check out our latest analysis for ChannelAdvisor
How Does David Spitz's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?
At the time of writing, our data says that ChannelAdvisor Corporation has a market cap of US$271m, and reported total annual CEO compensation of US$1.7m for the year to December 2018. While this analysis focuses on total compensation, it's worth noting the salary is lower, valued at US$411k. We note that more than half of the total compensation is not the salary; and performance requirements may apply to this non-salary portion. When we examined a selection of companies with market caps ranging from US$100m to US$400m, we found the median CEO total compensation was US$1.1m.
As you can see, David Spitz is paid more than the median CEO pay at companies of a similar size, in the same market. However, this does not necessarily mean ChannelAdvisor Corporation is paying too much. We can get a better idea of how generous the pay is by looking at the performance of the underlying business.
You can see a visual representation of the CEO compensation at ChannelAdvisor, below.
Is ChannelAdvisor Corporation Growing?
Over the last three years ChannelAdvisor Corporation has grown its earnings per share (EPS) by an average of 31% per year (using a line of best fit). The trailing twelve months of revenue was pretty much the same as the prior period.
This demonstrates that the company has been improving recently. A good result. While it would be good to see revenue growth, profits matter more in the end. Shareholders might be interested in this free visualization of analyst forecasts.
Has ChannelAdvisor Corporation Been A Good Investment?
With a three year total loss of 33%, ChannelAdvisor Corporation would certainly have some dissatisfied shareholders. So shareholders would probably think the company shouldn't be too generous with CEO compensation.
In Summary...
We compared the total CEO remuneration paid by ChannelAdvisor Corporation, and compared it to remuneration at a group of similar sized companies. As discussed above, we discovered that the company pays more than the median of that group.
However we must not forget that the EPS growth has been very strong over three years. However, the returns to investors are far less impressive, over the same period. Considering the per share profit growth, but keeping in mind the weak returns, we'd need more time to form a view on CEO compensation. Shareholders may want to check for free if ChannelAdvisor insiders are buying or selling shares.
Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.
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