How Much Did Aspen Group Inc’s (NASDAQ:ASPU) CEO Pocket Last Year?
In 2012 Mike Mathews was appointed CEO of Aspen Group Inc (NASDAQ:ASPU). 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 – as a second measure of performance – we will look at the returns shareholders have received over the last few years. This method should give us information to assess how appropriately the company pays the CEO.
View our latest analysis for Aspen Group
How Does Mike Mathews’s Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?
At the time of writing our data says that Aspen Group Inc has a market cap of US$95m, and is paying total annual CEO compensation of US$637k. Notably, that’s an increase of 46% over the year before. We looked at a group of companies with market capitalizations under US$200m, and the median CEO compensation was US$293k.
Thus we can conclude that Mike Mathews receives more in total compensation than the median of a group of companies in the same market, and of similar size to Aspen Group Inc. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean the pay is too high. We can better assess whether the pay is overly generous by looking into the underlying business performance.
You can see a visual representation of the CEO compensation at Aspen Group, below.
Is Aspen Group Inc Growing?
Aspen Group Inc has reduced its earnings per share by an average of 11% a year, over the last three years. Its revenue is up 59% over last year.
Investors should note that, over three years, earnings per share are down. But on the other hand, revenue growth is strong, suggesting a brighter future. These two metric are moving in different directions, so while it’s hard to be confident judging performance, we think the stock is worth watching.
Shareholders might be interested in this free visualization of analyst forecasts. .
Has Aspen Group Inc Been A Good Investment?
Most shareholders would probably be pleased with Aspen Group Inc for providing a total return of 133% over three years. This strong performance might mean some shareholders don’t mind if the CEO is paid more than is normal for a company of its size.
In Summary…
We compared total CEO remuneration at Aspen Group Inc with the amount paid at companies with a similar market capitalization. Our data suggests that it pays above the median CEO pay within that group.
One might like to have seen stronger growth, but shareholder returns have been pleasing, over the last three years. So, considering these tasty returns, the CEO compensation may be quite appropriate. Whatever your view on compensation, you might want to check if insiders are buying or selling Aspen Group Inc 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.
