Is QTS Realty Trust, Inc.’s (NYSE:QTS) CEO Paid At A Competitive Rate?
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Chad Williams became the CEO of QTS Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:QTS) in 2013. This report will, first, examine the CEO compensation levels in comparison to CEO compensation at companies of similar size. 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 method should give us information to assess how appropriately the company pays the CEO.
Check out our latest analysis for QTS Realty Trust
How Does Chad Williams’s Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?
According to our data, QTS Realty Trust, Inc. has a market capitalization of US$2.4b, and pays its CEO total annual compensation worth US$6.4m. (This is based on the year to 2017). While this analysis focuses on total compensation, it’s worth noting the salary is lower, valued at US$692k. When we examined a selection of companies with market caps ranging from US$2.0b to US$6.4b, we found the median CEO compensation was US$4.8m.
As you can see, Chad Williams is paid more than the median CEO pay at companies of a similar size, in the same market. However, this does not necessarily mean QTS Realty Trust, Inc. is paying too much. We can better assess whether the pay is overly generous by looking into the underlying business performance.
You can see, below, how CEO compensation at QTS Realty Trust has changed over time.
Is QTS Realty Trust, Inc. Growing?
Over the last three years QTS Realty Trust, Inc. has shrunk its earnings per share by an average of 84% per year. It achieved revenue growth of 5.6% over the last year.
Sadly for shareholders, earnings per share are actually down, over three years. The fairly low revenue growth fails to impress given that the earnings per share is down. So given this relatively weak performance, shareholders would probably not want to see high compensation for the CEO.
You might want to check this free visual report on analyst forecasts for future earnings.
Has QTS Realty Trust, Inc. Been A Good Investment?
With a total shareholder return of 2.7% over three years, QTS Realty Trust, Inc. has done okay by shareholders. But they would probably prefer not to see CEO compensation far in excess of the median.
In Summary…
We compared total CEO remuneration at QTS Realty Trust, Inc. with the amount paid at companies with a similar market capitalization. We found that it pays well over the median amount paid in the benchmark group.
Earnings per share have not grown in three years, and the revenue growth fails to impress us.
And while shareholder returns have been respectable, they have hardly been superb. So you may want to delve deeper, because we don’t think the CEO pay is too low. Shareholders may want to check for free if QTS Realty Trust insiders are buying or selling shares.
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.
