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.