How Should Investors Feel About Vulcan Materials Company's (NYSE:VMC) CEO Pay?
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In 2014 Tom Hill was appointed CEO of Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC). First, this article will compare CEO compensation with compensation at other large 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. This process should give us an idea about how appropriately the CEO is paid.
See our latest analysis for Vulcan Materials
How Does Tom Hill's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?
At the time of writing our data says that Vulcan Materials Company has a market cap of US$17b, and is paying total annual CEO compensation of US$7.7m. (This figure is for the year to December 2018). That's a fairly small increase of 6.7% on year before. We think total compensation is more important but we note that the CEO salary is lower, at US$1.1m. 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.
Most shareholders would consider it a positive that Tom Hill takes less in total compensation than the CEOs of most other large companies, leaving more for shareholders. While this is a good thing, you'll need to understand the business better before you can form an opinion.
You can see a visual representation of the CEO compensation at Vulcan Materials, below.
Is Vulcan Materials Company Growing?
Vulcan Materials Company has increased its earnings per share (EPS) by an average of 20% a year, over the last three years (using a line of best fit). Its revenue is up 14% over last year.
This shows that the company has improved itself over the last few years. Good news for shareholders. It's also good to see decent revenue growth in the last year, suggesting the business is healthy and growing. Shareholders might be interested in this free visualization of analyst forecasts.
Has Vulcan Materials Company Been A Good Investment?
Vulcan Materials Company has generated a total shareholder return of 12% over three years, so most shareholders would be reasonably content. But they would probably prefer not to see CEO compensation far in excess of the median.
In Summary...
Vulcan Materials Company is currently paying its CEO below what is normal for large companies. Many would consider this to indicate that the pay is modest since the business is growing. The total shareholder return might not be amazing, but that doesn't mean that Tom Hill is paid too much.
It's good to see reasonable payment of the CEO, even while the business improves. But for me, it's even better if insiders are also buying shares with their own cold, hard, cash. If you think CEO compensation levels are interesting you will probably really like this free visualization of insider trading at Vulcan Materials.
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.
We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.
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. Thank you for reading.
