How Much Did Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company’s (NASDAQ:WLTW) CEO Pocket Last Year?
John Haley became the CEO of Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:WLTW) in 2016. First, this article will compare CEO compensation with compensation at other large companies. Next, we’ll consider growth that the business demonstrates. Third, we’ll reflect on the total return to shareholders over three years, as a second measure of business performance. This method should give us information to assess how appropriately the company pays the CEO.
Check out our latest analysis for Willis Towers Watson
How Does John Haley’s Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?
According to our data, Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company has a market capitalization of US$20b, and pays its CEO total annual compensation worth US$4.1m. (This number is for the twelve months until 2017). While this analysis focuses on total compensation, it’s worth noting the salary is lower, valued at US$1.2m. We looked at a group of companies with market capitalizations over US$8.0b and the median CEO compensation was US$11m. There aren’t very many mega-cap companies, so we had to take a wide range to get a meaningful comparison figure.
A first glance this seems like a real positive for shareholders, since John Haley is paid less than the average compensation paid by other large companies. Though positive, it’s important we delve into the performance of the actual business.
You can see, below, how CEO compensation at Willis Towers Watson has changed over time.
Is Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company Growing?
Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company has reduced its earnings per share by an average of 14% a year, over the last three years. In the last year, its revenue is up 1.3%.
Few shareholders would be pleased to read that earnings per share are lower over three years. And the modest revenue growth over 12 months isn’t much comfort against the reduced earnings per share. It’s hard to argue the company is firing on all cylinders, so shareholders might be averse to high CEO remuneration.
It could be important to check this free visual depiction of what analysts expect for the future.
Has Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company Been A Good Investment?
Most shareholders would probably be pleased with Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company for providing a total return of 33% 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…
It looks like Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company pays its CEO less than the average at large companies.
It’s well worth noting that while John Haley is paid less than most company leaders (at larger companies), there isn’t much EPS growth. Having said that, returns to shareholders have been great. We would like to see EPS growth, but in our view it seems the CEO is remunerated reasonably. CEO compensation is one thing, but it is also interesting to check if the CEO is buying or selling Willis Towers Watson (free visualization of insider trades).
Or you might prefer this data-rich interactive visualization of historic revenue and earnings.
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.
