Does Qualstar Corporation’s (NASDAQ:QBAK) CEO Pay Reflect Performance?
Steven Bronson became the CEO of Qualstar Corporation (NASDAQ:QBAK) in 2013. First, this article will compare CEO compensation with compensation at similar sized companies. After that, we will consider the growth in the business. Third, we’ll reflect on the total return to shareholders over three years, as a second measure of business performance. This process should give us an idea about how appropriately the CEO is paid.
See our latest analysis for Qualstar
How Does Steven Bronson’s Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?
Our data indicates that Qualstar Corporation is worth US$11m, and total annual CEO compensation is US$568k. (This number is for the twelve months until 2017). We think total compensation is more important but we note that the CEO salary is lower, at US$176k. We examined a group of similar sized companies, with market capitalizations of below US$200m. The median CEO compensation in that group is US$296k.
It would therefore appear that Qualstar Corporation pays Steven Bronson more than the median CEO remuneration at companies of a similar size, in the same market. However, this fact alone doesn’t mean the remuneration is too high. 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 Qualstar, below.
Is Qualstar Corporation Growing?
Qualstar Corporation has increased its earnings per share (EPS) by an average of 110% a year, over the last three years It achieved revenue growth of 29% over the last year.
This shows that the company has improved itself over the last few years. Good news for shareholders. Most shareholders would be pleased to see strong revenue growth combined with EPS growth. This combo suggests a fast growing business.
Although we don’t have analyst forecasts, you might want to assess this data-rich visualization of earnings, revenue and cash flow.
Has Qualstar Corporation Been A Good Investment?
Qualstar Corporation has not done too badly by shareholders, with a total return of 4.6%, over three years. But they probably don’t want to see the CEO paid more than is normal for companies around the same size.
In Summary…
We compared the total CEO remuneration paid by Qualstar Corporation, and compared it to remuneration at a group of similar sized companies. We found that it pays well over the median amount paid in the benchmark group.
However we must not forget that the EPS growth has been very strong over three years. Looking at the same time period, we think that the shareholder returns are respectable. While it may be worth researching further, we don’t see a problem with the CEO pay, given the good EPS growth. Whatever your view on compensation, you might want to check if insiders are buying or selling Qualstar shares (free trial).
Or you could feast your eyes on this interactive graph depicting past earnings, cash flow and revenue.
To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
