November Executive Turnover Remains Positive With Caveats

Liberum Research continues to see positive signs for increasing executive turnover which typically translates into growth for the economy.  Just as Liberum registered in the previous month of October, November has also shown positive signs for continued executive turnover but with a few caveats.  Unlike October, executive turnover totals were positive in the year to year November 2014 to the month of November 2014.  The same, however, was not completely the case when Liberum compared October 2014's executive turnover results with those of November 2014.  Liberum anticipates the U.S. Government's employment numbers scheduled for release at the end of this week, will not be as positive as those anticipated by most market analysts but will still be acceptable.  Liberum anticipates executive turnover will continue to grow as we move into the winter and the early spring which, if true, will bode well for the overall North American economies.  Earlier today, ADP released its November Employment Report.  The results while positive, were not near the expectations of most market analysts but does coincide with Liberum's latest figures.

According to ADP's November Employment Report:

Private sector employment increased by 208,000 jobs from October to November according to the November ADP National Employment Report®

"November continued to show solid job growth above 200,000,” said Carlos Rodriguez, president and chief executive officer of ADP. “Small businesses continued to drive job gains adding almost half the total for the month.”

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, said, “Steady as she goes in the job market. Monthly job gains remain consistently over 200,000. At this pace the unemployment rate will drop by half a percentage point per annum. The tightening in the job market will soon prompt acceleration in wage growth.” 

As for Liberum's latest figures, all four key categories experienced increases in November 2014 over the same month of November 2013, however, Liberum registered more mixed results when November 2014's turnover figures were compared to the totals for the previous month of October.  

 

Liberum Comparison Breakdown of Key November Executive Turnover Figures

Below is a breakdown of Liberum's key executive category percentage changes for November 2014 compared with November a year earlier and the previous month of October 2014.   

 

November 2013 Compared to November 2014

•  
  • For November 2014 increases in turnover occured in all four key categories.  CEO changes increased 5% from November a year earlier, CFO changes increased 23%, C-level changes increased 5%, and board of director changes increased 2%.  

October 2014 Compared to November 2014

•  
  • The month to month changes in executive turnover, October 2014 to November 2014, however, were not nearly as positive.  CEO changes saw no change, CFO changes increased 10%, while C-level changes  and board of director changes declined 7% and 15% respectively.      

Below are the overall turnover totals for November 2014.  The information is just illustrative of how institutional investors could view executive turnover and its possible relationship with a company's performance.  Using Liberum's database could offer a totally new perspective on investment and is a potential way to come up with unique special situation opportunities.  Executive search firms on the other hand can use the information to generate new leads and new clients.   

Call now (212-988-5497) or email richard@twst.com and get a no obligation one week trial to Liberum's online management change database. Find out why Hedge Funds, Executive Search, Business Intelligence and Consulting firms all rely on Liberum's data.

 

KEY CEO CHANGES - NOVEMBER 2014
35 COMPANIES WITH CEO CHANGES WORTH RE-EXAMINING 

According to Liberum's Management Change Database, a total of 212 CEO related changes occurred during November 2014. Here are 35 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. (Anyone using Liberum's database could do the same kind of analysis for other key titles, e.g., CFOs, COOs, CMOs Presidents, etc.)

DATE  COMPANY TICKER  EXCHANGE  MARKET CAP $ MILLIONS    

11-03 Cesca Therapeutics Inc   KOOL  NASDAQ  43

11-04 Lpath Inc  LPTN  NASDAQ  45

11-05 Acelrx Pharmaceut  ACRX  NASDAQ  244

11-05 Jive Software, In  JIVE  NASDAQ  461

11-06 Americn Transn Hl  ATHI  OTC  92

11-06 Financial Engines  FNGN  NASDAQ  1635

11-06 Fuelstream Inc  FLST  OTC  64

11-06 Goldspan Resource  GSPND   168

11-06 Osram Licht Ag  OSAGF  OTC  3668

11-10 Aaron's, Inc. Com  AAN  NYSE  1883

11-10 Bsd Medical Corpo  BSDM  NASDAQ  18

11-12 Northstar Hlthcr  NRTSF  OTC  63

11-12 Unitedhealth Group, Inc.  UNH  NYSE  91660

11-13 Alchemia Ltd  AEMAF  OTC  23

11-13 Calzada Ltd  CALZF  OTC  31

11-13 Willis Group Holdings Limited  WSH  NYSE  7377

11-14 Arctic Cat, Inc. ACAT  NASDAQ  432

11-14 Ashland Inc.  ASH  NYSE  7992

11-14 Biocorrx Inc  BICX  OTC  15

11-14 Carpenter Technology Corporation  CRS  NYSE  2742

11-17 Genuine Parts Company  GPC  NYSE  15307

11-17 Kennametal Inc.  KMT  NYSE  3205

11-17 Servicesource Int  SREV  NASDAQ  356

11-18 Concurrent Computer Corp  CCUR  NASDAQ  60

11-19 Air Industries Gr  AIRI  NYSE  74

11-20 First Titan Corp  FTTN  OTC  870

11-20 Hertz Global Holdings, Inc.  HTZ  NYSE  10185

11-20 Rhino Resource Pa  RNO  NYSE  84

11-21 Evertec, Inc. Com  EVTC  NYSE  1737

11-21 Intrawest Resorts  SNOW  NYSE  478

11-21 Sotheby's BID  NYSE  2908 

11-24 Banco Santander S  BCDRF  OTC  108000

11-24 Infoblox Inc. Com  BLOX  NYSE   980

11-24 Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.  JEC  NYSE  6321

11-26 Highvista Gold In  HVV  CVE  399

 

NOVEMBER 2014 MANAGEMENT CHANGE STATISTICS

C-LEVEL MANAGEMENT CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 1323

TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS

> Drugs/Biotech - 158> Banking - 76
> Energy - 72

NOVEMBER 2014 CEO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 212

TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS

> Drugs/Biotech - 19

> Metals/Mining - 13> Banking- 11

NOVEMBER 2014 CFO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 210

TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS

> Drugs/Biotech - 19
> Metals/Mining - 16
> Food - 10

NOVEMBER 2014 BOARD OF DIRECTOR CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 382

TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS

> Drugs/Biotech - 56
> Energy - 28
> Banking - 21

Investors need to diligently monitor key management changes. Certain management changes should be viewed as a "special situation" that can have a direct and major impact on a company's performance and share price.

• New CEOs know more than the market about the company.  Their decision to take the position contains information.  Likewise the departing CEO. 

• Likewise departing CFOs New CEOs will bring new skills and often-times a new direction.  This is normally significant, and worth analyzing.

Liberum Research, the independent research firm focused on corporate management change, has developed an online relational database designed to assist institutional investors develop special situation investment ideas related to executive management change. While special situation investing traditionally revolves around corporate restructuring, spin-offs and acquisitions, executive management changes, depending on the circumstances, can represent a short or long-term investment opportunity. 

Liberum's ten year old database offers institutional investors the ability to examine: 

• an individual company, 
• sector/s, 
• corporate titles
• group of companies, 
• and/or geographic region/s/ locations via a metric of one's own choosing.  
• you can use the information individually or in combination with a number of other financial tools to develop unique investment ideas. 

Executive Turnover Jumps As Do Private Employment Rolls - Economy Humming?

Liberum Research has been predicting for the last number of months increased executive turnover at public companies.  While turnover has not lived up to Liberum's predictions, October's latest figures have moved in a far more positive direction and along the path Liberum has been forecasting.  October's growth in executive turnover coincides with ADP's latest Employment Report released November 5, that showed an unexpected increase in private employment.  Liberum expects the same will be true with the U.S. Labor Department's (BLS) Employment figures scheduled for release at the end of this week.

According to today's ADP October Employment Report:

Private-sector employment increased by 230,000 from September to October, on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, said, “The job market is steadily picking up pace. Job growth is strong and broad-based across industries and company sizes. At this pace of job growth unemployment and underemployment is quickly declining. The job market will soon be tight enough to support a meaningful acceleration in wage growth.”

As for Liberum's latest figures, three out four key categories experienced declines in October 2014 over the same month of October 2013, however, Liberum saw consistently large increases in all four categories when October 2014's turnover figures were compared to the same totals for the previous month of September 2014.  Liberum expects executive turnover will continue to grow as we move into the later Fall and early Winter months.  If turnover growth continues to grow, it will represent another positive sign for North America's economic recovery.   

Liberum Comparison Breakdown of Key October Executive Turnover Figures

Below is a breakdown of Liberum's key executive category percentage changes for October 2014 compared with October a year earlier and the previous month of September 2014.   

October 2013 Compared to October 2014 

For October 2014 declines in turnover occured in three key categories.  CFO changes declined 9% from  October a year earlier, C-level changes declined 4%, and board of director changes declined 12%.  CEO changes on the other hand, increased a mere 1%.

September 2014 Compared to October 2014 

The month to month changes in executive turnover, September 2014 to October 2014, however, showed significant increases in all four key categories.  CEO changes increased 22%, CFO changes increased 4%, C-level changes increased 16%, and board of director changes increased 25%.    

  

Below are the overall turnover totals for October 2014.  The information is just illustrative of how institutional investors could view executive turnover and its possible relationship with a company's performance.  

KEY CEO CHANGES - OCTOBER 2014
33 COMPANIES WITH CEO CHANGES WORTH RE-EXAMINING 

According to Liberum's Management Change Database, a total of 213 CEO related changes occurred during October 2014. Here are 33 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. (Anyone using Liberum's database could do the same kind of analysis for other key titles, e.g., CFOs, COOs, CMOs Presidents, etc.)

DATE  COMPANY TICKER  EXCHANGE  MARKET CAP $ MILLIONS    

10-01 Activecare Inc  ACAR $10

10-01 Centrus Energy Co  LEU  $38

10-06 Unisys Corporation  UIS  OTC  $1044

10-07 Niko Res NKO  TORONTO  $85

10-07 Vonage Holdings Corp VG  NYSE   $667

10-08 Purespectrum, Inc  PSRU  OTC  $263

10-08 The Gap Inc.  GPS  NYSE  $15946

10-09 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.  AMD  NYSE  $2287

10-13 Adcare Health Sys  ADK  NYSE  $76

10-13 J.C. Penney Co., Inc.  JCP  NYSE  $2242

10-14 Computer Task Group, Inc  CTG  NASDAQ  $198

10-14 Dex Media, Inc.  DXM  NSADQ  $134

10-14 Quiksilver, Inc.  ZQK  NYSE  $304

10-15 Appiphany Technol  APHD  OTC  $93

10-15 Bg Group BG  LONDON  $346

10-15 Innovative Softwa  INIV  OTC  $22

10-15 Midway Gold Corpo  MDW  NYSE  $182

10-15 Navidea Biopharma  NAVB  NYSE  $200

10-15 Statoil ASA (ADR)  STO  NYSE  $70382

10-16 Darden Restaurants, Inc.  DRI  NYSE  $6536

10-17 Richmont Mines Inc. (USA)  RIC  NYSE  $120

10-21 C T I Group (Hold  CTIG  OTC  $10

10-21 First Colombia Go  FCGD  OTC  $16

10-21 SeaChange Intl  SEAC  NASDAQ  $211

10-22 Golden Predator M  GPY CVE  $3

10-24 Thales  HO  France  $7738

10-27 Cerulean Pharma I  CERU  NASDAQ  $83

10-28 22nd Cent XXII  NYSE  $129

10-29 sanofi-aventis (ADR)  SNY  NYSE  $118900

10-29 Shanda Games Limi  GAME  NASDAQ  $1740

10-30 F5 Networks, Inc.  FFIV  NASDAQ  $9077

10-31 Carnival Corporation  CCL  NYSE  $31197

10-31 Oragenics Inc  OGEN  NYSE

OCTOBER 2014 MANAGEMENT CHANGE STATISTICS

C-LEVEL MANAGEMENT CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 1420

TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS

> Drugs/Biotech - 173
> Banking - 107
> Energy - 106

OCTOBER 2014 CEO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 213

TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS

> Drugs/Biotech - 21

> Energy- 21> Retail - 14
> Metals/Mining - 13

OCTOBER 2014 CFO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 191

TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS

> Drugs/Biotech - 21
> Energy - 20
> Real Estate - 15

> Software - 15

OCTOBER 2014 BOARD OF DIRECTOR CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 452

TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS

> Drugs/Biotech - 73
> Banking - 41
> Energy - 22

Investors need to diligently monitor key management changes. Certain management changes should be viewed as a "special situation" that can have a direct and major impact on a company's performance and share price.

• New CEOs know more than the market about the company.  Their decision to take the position contains information.  Likewise the departing CEO. 

• Likewise departing CFOs New CEOs will bring new skills and often-times a new direction.  This is normally significant, and worth analyzing.

Liberum Research, the independent research firm focused on corporate management change, has developed an online relational database designed to assist institutional investors develop special situation investment ideas related to executive management change. While special situation investing traditionally revolves around corporate restructuring, spin-offs and acquisitions, executive management changes, depending on the circumstances, can represent a short or long-term investment opportunity. 

ABOUT LIBERUM

The largest database of C-level executive change at public companies.  Frequently quoted in the financial press, Liberum helps investors monitor this important, continuous stream of investment events.  The data is also useful for investment bankers, private equity, executive search and consulting firms.  The data can be used in numerous ways. Daily customizable alerts, a searchable database, custom reports, xml feeds.   Liberum clients get the data the way they can best exploit it.  Get a short trial call 212-988-5497 or email richard@twst.com.   

Latest Executive Turnover Data Does Not Correlate With Employment Growth Figures

The latest executive turnover numbers remain far more muddled than Liberum expected. Both the September totals and the latest quarterly executive turnover numbers have failed to indicate a trend for where executive turnover will be going in the near future. To make matters more complicated, Liberum Research's latest executive turnover numbers have not correlated with the job growth numbers that were just released October 1, from ADP or with the latest decreased number of people seeking unemployment benefits released from the government.  ADP's September Employment Report results were far more positive than the executive turnover numbers Liberum tracked over the same period.  This lack of correlation between these two data categories is a bit unusual.  It is possible the employment numbers to be released from U.S. Government's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) later this week, will correlate more closely with Liberum's latest executive turnover figures, we will just have to see.

According to ADP's latest Employment Report:

Private sector employment increased by 213,000 jobs from August to September.

"September’s jobs added number marks the sixth straight month of employment gains above 200,000,” said Carlos Rodriguez, president and chief executive officer of ADP. “It’s a positive sign for the economy to see the 200,000-plus trend continue.”
Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, said, "Job gains remain strong and steady. The pace of job growth has been remarkably similar for the past several years. Especially encouraging most recently is the increasingly broad base nature of those gains. Nearly all industries and companies of all sizes are adding consistently to payrolls.” 

While Liberum has been a bit surprised about the latest executive turnover numbers, we remain positive about the American Economy and continue to expect executive turnover numbers to trend upward as we move into the Fall and early Winter months. 

Liberum has put together below, a six plus year quarterly breakdown of executive turnover totals for CEOs, CFOs and C-level executives covering North America. Most of the below quarterly numbers showed continuing declines until the second quarter of 2011.  At that point, the numbers began to reverse themselves.  Turnover at the executive levels of corporate America began to grow but not consistently and that trend has continued.  

Anyone investing in the market must pay special attention to executive turnover both at the top and the middle executive ranks.  Failure to do so, will result in lost opportunities or worse. To take advantage of these changes, get a free trial to Liberum's OnlineManagement Change Database.  Just call Richard at 212-988-5497 or send an email to richard@twst.com requesting your free trial.  Within a day of your trial, you will have access to nearly 200,000 data points from which you can generate ideas and daily information on who ischanging jobs at the top.

Below is a simple table outlining the quarterly turnover totals as registered through Liberum Research's Management Change Database for 2008 through the third quarter of 2014 for CEO, CFO and overall C-level turnover.  

 Total CEO Turnover Comparisons   

Year	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
1st Quarter	745	491	388	346	680	583	500
2nd Quarter	596	380	321	581	665	619	527
3rd Quarter	533	409	298	713	636	627	557
4th Quarter	461	430	328	697	673	636	NA
Annual Total	2,335	1,710	1,335	2,337	2,654	2,465	1,584

 Total CFO Turnover Comparisons 

Year	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
1st Quarter	593	332	296	280	640	495	468
2nd Quarter	551	326	273	404	612	557	595
3rd Quarter	438	279	256	629	598	582	550
4th Quarter	364	313	258	476	569	562	NA
Annual Total	1,946	1,250	1,083	1,789	2,419	2,196	1,613

 Total C-level Turnover Comparisons

Year	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
1st Quarter	6735	4061	3453	2863	5442	3971	4083
2nd Quarter	7430	5051	3199	4041	5036	4102	4117
3rd Quarter	4865	3690	2522	5349	4235	4123	3950
4th Quarter	4277	3439	2381	4596	4197	4196	NA
Annual Total	23,307	16,241	11,555	16,849	18,910	16,392	12,150

The latest monthly comparison figures with regard to executive turnover for September 2014 as compared with those of September 2013 and August 2014 and September 2014 are as follows:  

• CEO turnover for September 2014 declined 17% from that of September 2013, CFO turnover declined 7%, C-level turnover declined 5% and Board of Director turnover declined 14%.  

• The the month to month change from August 2014 to September 2014 was a bit more positive. CEO turnover increased 11% for CEOs, declined 12% for CFOs, increased 6% with regard to C-level changes and declined 9% for Board of Director changes.  

In the below report, Liberum has focused on forty five CEO changes of special significance for the month of September out of a total of 175. We have also put together the overall turnover figures for the month of September 2014.  The below information is just illustrative of how investors could view executive turnover and its possible relationship with a company's performance. The same could be done for COOs, Presidents, Chairmans, etc. just through the Liberum database.

DATE       COMPANY   TICKER    EXCHANGE   MARKET CAP $ MILLIONS

09-01 American International Group, Inc. AIG  79991

09-01 Luxottica Group S.p.A. (ADR)  LUX  25308

09-02 Danaher Corporation  DHR  53546

09-02 Gordmans Stores  GMAN  70

09-03 Baldwin Technology Co. BLD

09-03 Trans World Entertainment Corporation  TWMC  115

09-03 Westell Technologies, Inc.  WTSL  70

09-03 Willbros Group, Inc. WG  530

09-04 Alcatel-Lucent (ADR)  ALU  9377

09-05 First Mountain Bn  FMBP  9

09-05 Triple-S Mgmt Cl  GTS

09-06 Positron Corp  POSC

09-08 Capital Product P  CPLP  918

09-08 Hertz Global Holdings, Inc.  HTZ  12522

09-08 International Paper Company  IP  20659

09-08 Reneuron Group  RENE.L

09-09 Lighting Science  LSCG  37

09-11 Altisource Portfo  ASPS  2252

09-11 Mri Interventions  MRIC  68

09-12 Vicon Inds Inc VII  16

09-16 ATLANTIC POWER CORP  AT

09-16 Landec Corporation  LNDC  337

09-17 Agilent Technologies Inc.  A

09-17 Insulet Corporati  PODD  2033

09-18 Continental Resrc  CLR  24783

09-18 Hudson City Bncp  HCBK

09-18 Oracle Corporation  ORCL  175100

09-19 JetBlue Airways Corporation  JBLU  3210

09-19 Solaris Power Cel  SPCL

09-22 Medijane Hldgs In  MJMD  12

09-22 Response Biomedic  RPBIF  9

09-22 Thoratec Corp.  THOR  1495

09-24 Activecare Inc  ACAR  14

09-24 Aja Cannafacturin  AJAC   339

09-24 Malvern Bancorp,  MLVF   71

09-24 That Marketing So  VSHGD  15

09-25 Sears Canada Inc  SCC.TO  1299

09-25 Success Holding G  SHGT  51

09-26 The Pep Boys - Manny, Moe & Jack  PBY  503

09-29 American Apparel, Inc.  APP  140

09-29 AMN Healthcare Services, Inc.  AHS  719

09-29 Coty Inc. Class A  COTY  5903

09-29 Loton Corp  LTNR  268

09-29 Lyondellbasell In  LYB  56925

09-29 Protalix BioTherapeutics Inc. PLX  221

SEPTEMBER 2014 MANAGEMENT CHANGE STATISTICS

C-LEVEL MANAGEMENT CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 1223
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Drugs/Biotech - 137
> Banking  - 124
> Business Services - 84

SEPTEMBER 2014 CEO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 175
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Banking - 15
> Drugs/Biotech - 14> Insurance -14
> Manufacturing - 14

SEPTEMBER 2014 CFO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 184
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Business Services - 13
> Energy - 13
> Drugs/Biotech - 11
> Manufacturing - 11

SEPTEMBER 2014 BOARD OF DIRECTOR CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 361
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Drugs/Biotech - 51
> Banking - 24
> Business Services - 22

Investors need to diligently monitor key management changes. Certain management changes should be viewed as a "special situation" that can have a direct and major impact on a company's performance and share price.

• New CEOs know more than the market about the company.  Their decision to take the position contains information. Likewise the departing CEO. Likewise departing CFOs.

• New CEOs will bring new skills and often-times a new direction.  This is normally significant, and worth analyzing.

Liberum Research, the independent research firm focused on corporate management change, has developed an online relational database designed to assist institutional investors develop special situation investment ideas related to executive management change. While special situation investing traditionally revolves around corporate restructuring, spin-offs and acquisitions, executive management changes, depending on the circumstances, can represent a short or long-term investment opportunity. 

Liberum's ten year old database offers institutional investors the ability to examine an individual company, sector/s, group of companies, and/or geographic region/s/ locations via a metric of one's own choosing.  You can use the information individually or in combination with a number of other financial tools to develop unique investment ideas.