Management Turnover as Change Agent

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

August's Tepid Executive Turnover Raises Concerns

Liberum's executive turnover data for August 2013 showed a somewhat confusing trend for the American economy.  All four key executive turnover categories (CEOs, CFOs, C-level Execs and Board of Directors) saw percentage declines from the same month a year earlier yet, August saw increases in each of the four key categories from the previous month of July 2013.  The somewhat confusing trend for August was also seen in the latest monthly employment numbers released by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and ADP's August Employment Report.  August's Liberum Research's executive turnover data trended closely with the August monthly Employment Data released from the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and from ADP's August Employment Report.  Despite August's tepid numbers, Liberum expects excutive turnvoer to trend upward as we move into the fall.

According to the BLS August Employment Report released September 6th, which was not as good as Analysts expected,:

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 169,000 in August, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 7.3 percent...

The same was true for ADP's 2013 August Employment Report released on September 5th reported:

Private sector employment increased by 176,000 jobs from July to August...
Below is a breakdown of Liberum's key executive category percentage changes for August 2013 compared with August a year earlier and the previous month of July 2013.   
  • For August 2013 CEO changes declined 13% from a year earlier, CFO changes declined 5%, overall C-level (as defined by Liberum Research as board of directors, CEOs, CFOs down to corporate VPs) changes declined 6% and board of director changes declined 3% as compared with August 2012 totals. 
  • The month to month change in executive turnover (July 2013 to August 2013) showed a somewhat different picture with an 8% increase in CEOs, CFO changes increased 25%, overall C-level changes increased a mere 2% and board of director changes increased 14%, respectively.       
Below are the overall turnover figures for August.  
KEY CEO CHANGES - AUGUST 201367 COMPANIES WITH CEO CHANGES WORTH RE-EXAMINING 
According to Liberum's Management Change Database, a total of 206 CEO related changes occurred during August 2013. Here are a whopping 67 from the time period that caught my eye.  By significant, I'm looking for situations where I think a particularly strong or weak choice has been made - given the apparent current state of the company - or where there is an interesting special situation. 

DATE   COMPANY TICKER  EXCHANGE  MARKET CAP $ MILLIONS    
08-01 Globalwise Invest  GWIV   OBB  5
08-01 The Marcus Corporation   MCS NYSE  355
08-01 Weight Watchers Int'l, Inc. WTW  NYSE  2152
08-02 Elite Pharma Inc ELTP   OBB
08-02 Liposcience, Inc.  LPDX   NASDAQ  78
08-02 Rock-Tenn Company RKT NYSE  8451
08-05 Patapsco Bancorp  PATD OBB  5
08-07 Bacterin Internat   BONE  NYSE  26
08-07 Groupon, Inc.   GRPN  NASDAQ  7026
08-07 Murphy Oil Corp  MUR  NYSE  13191
08-07 Selectica, Inc.   SLTC   NASDAQ  21
08-08 Islet Sciences, I  ISLT   OTN  25
08-08 Red Lion Hotels Corp   RLH   NYSE  116
08-08 Shoretel, Inc.   SHOR  NASDAQ  259
08-08 Standex Int'l Corp.   SXI  NYSE  760
08-08 Thompson Crk Mtls  TC   NYSE  582
08-09 American Woodmark Corp   AMWD   NASDAQ  494
08-09 Merge Technologies Inc   MRGE   NASDAQ  231
08-09 Semgroup Corporat   SEMG   NYSE  2316
08-09 United Community Fin Corp   UCFC   NASDAQ  178
08-12 Lot78, Inc LOTE   OTN  71
08-13 Liberty Energy Co   LBYE OTN  4
08-14 American Stad Ene  ASEN  OTN  12
08-14 Pure Bioscience   PURE  OTN  10
08-14 Silverstar Mining   SLVM  OTN  446
08-15 Global Digital So   GDSI   OTN  31
08-15 Jbi, Inc.   JBII   OTN  36
08-15 LTC Properties, Inc.  LTC   NYSE  1269
08-15 Sync2 Networks Co  SYNW   OTN  721
08-15 The First Marblehead Corp   FMD  NYSE  175
08-16 A.P. Pharma, Inc.  APPA   OBB  129
08-16 Start Scientific   STSC  OTN  109
08-18 Catalyst Paper   CYSTF   OTN  15
08-19 United Silver Cor   USCZF   OTN  2
08-19 Yancoal Australia   YACAF   OTN  875
08-20 Agricon Global Co   AGRC  OTN  11
08-20 Bae Systems   BA  LSS  143
08-20 Smtp Inc   SMTP   OBB  15
08-20 Washington   REIT   WRE NYSE  1625
08-21 Central European Media   CETV  NASDAQ  584
08-21 Ssh Communication  SCSYF   96
08-21 Vestas Wind Syste  VWS  FRA
08-21 Viewcast.Com  VCST  OBB  4
08-22 Invivo Therapeuti   NVIV   OBB  310
08-22 Lsl Property Serv   LSLPF  OTN  737
08-22 Skyline Medical I   SKLN   OTN  36
08-23 Green Mountain Coffee Roasters  GMCR   NASDAQ  13063
08-23 Microsoft Corporation    MSFT   NASDAQ  275100
08-23 Sierra Vista Bank  SVBA  OTN  9
08-23 Solar Power, Inc.  SOPW  OTN  20
08-23 Solta Medical, In   SLTM  NASDAQ  171
08-23 Zumtobel Ag   ZMTBF  OTN  518
08-26 Blackbaud, Inc.  BLKB  NASDAQ  1619
08-26 Echo Therapeutics  ECTE  NASDAQ  26
08-26 Integrated Device  IDTI  NASDAQ  1335
08-26 John Bean Tech Co  JBT  NYSE  684
08-26 Nexus Enterprise   NXES  OTN  5
08-26 Wesdome Gold Mine  WDO  TOR  71
08-27 Harvard Bioscience, Inc.   HBIO  NASDAQ  151
08-27 Monarchy Resource  MONK  OBB  6
08-28 Insignia Systems,  ISIG NASDAQ  34
08-28 Waters Corporatio   WAT   NYSE  8397
08-29 On the Move Sys C  OMVS   OTN  4
08-30 Altair Nanotechnologies, Inc.  ALTI   NASDAQ  27
08-30 New Jersey Mining  NJMC   OTN  3
08-30 Psm Holdings Inc   PSMH  OBB  12
08-30 Redfin Network In  RFNN   OTN  340
AUGUST 2013 MANAGEMENT CHANGE STATISTICS
C-LEVEL MANAGEMENT CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 1440
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Banking - 119
> Metals/Mining - 112
> Drugs/Biotech - 111



AUGUST 2013 CEO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 206
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
>MetalsMining - 24
>Drugs/Biotech - 21
>Energy - 20



AUGUST 2013 CFO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 205
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
>Metals/Mining - 25
>Drugs/Biotech - 23
>Banking - 17
>Energy - 17




AUGUST 2013 BOARD OF DIRECTOR CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 524
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
>Metals/Mining - 54
>Drugs/Biotech - 36
>Energy - 36