April was somewhat of a mixed month in relation to executive turnover as tracked by Liberum Research. A number of key categories (All C-level, CEO, CFO and board of director changes) we focus on saw increases while others were just the opposite. Overall executive turnover in the month of April was a bit more robust than the last few months but far from very positive in terms of total numbers. Liberum's executive turnover numbers dovetailed closely with ADP's April Employment Report released earlier this week whose numbers were below most analysts' expectations. Liberum Resarch views the level of executive turnover as a key economic indicator for the ecoonomy. It appears from Liberum and ADP's latest numbers for April, the American economy is struggling to find its legs once again. At the end of this week, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will release its much anticipated April Employment Report. Liberum expects the BLS report will come in closer to analysts' expectations than the ADP Report and will be slightly more positive.
Overall Liberum Research remains positive about the North American economies, particularly the United States. We expect the spring and early summer months will see the economy jump back a bit but will remain in flux. Excecutive turnover numbers are expected to grow as will overall employment.
According to ADP's April Employment Report,
Private sector employment increased by 169,000 jobs from March to April.Payrolls for businesses with 49 or fewer employees increased by 94,000 jobs in April, down from 105,000in March. Employment among companies with 50-499 employees increased by 70,000 jobs, up from 64,000 the previous month. Employment gains at large companies – those with 500 or more employees – decreased slightly from March, adding 5,000 jobs in April, down from 6,000. Companies with 500-999 employees added no jobs, after adding just 2,000 in March. Companies with over 1,000 employees added 5,000 jobs, a small improvement from 4,000 the previous month."April job gains came in under 200,000 for the second straight month,” said Carlos Rodriguez, president and chief executive officer of ADP. “Companies with 500 or more employees had the slowest growth.”Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, said, “Fallout from the collapse of oil prices and the surging value of the dollar are weighing on job creation. Employment in the energy sector and manufacturing is declining. However, this should prove temporary and job growth will reaccelerate this summer.”
Liberum Comparison Breakdown of Key April Executive Turnover Figures
Below is a breakdown of Liberum's key executive category percentage changes for April 2015 compared with April a year earlier and the previous month of March 2015. For the first time in a few years we saw declines in all four key categories measured.
April 2014 Compared to April 2015
- For April 2015 declines in turnover occured in three of the four key categories. CEO changes increased 7% from April a year earlier whereas CFO changes declined 4%, C-level changes declined 9%, and board of director changes declined 12%.
March 2015 Compared to April 2015
- The month to month changes in executive turnover was bit more mixed. CEO changes declined 9%, CFO changes declined 5%, whereas C-level changes increased 2% and board of director changes increased 14%.
Below are the overall turnover totals for April 2015. 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 and consulting firms can use the data for a variety of purposes.
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 - APRIL 2015
39 COMPANIES WITH CEO CHANGES WORTH RE-EXAMINING
39 COMPANIES WITH CEO CHANGES WORTH RE-EXAMINING
According to Liberum's Management Change Database, a total of 163 CEO related changes occurred during April 2015. Here are 39 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, CIOs, Presidents, etc.)
DATE COMPANY TICKER EXCHANGE MARKET CAP $ MILLIONS
04-01 Shanta Gold SHG LONDON
04-02 Fortum Corp Finland FOJCF OTC
04-02 Four Oaks Fincorp FOFN OTC
04-02 Mattel, Inc. MAT NASDAQ 7660
04-02 Sotheby's BID NYSE 2890
04-06 Cash America International, Inc. CSH NYSE 684
04-06 Wesco Aircraft Ho WAIR NYSE 1520
04-07 Interleukin Genet ILIU OTC
04-08 Cocrystal Pharma COCP OTC
04-08 Gold Reach Resour GRV VANCOUVER 13
04-08 Zynga Inc. ZNGA NASDAQ 2280
04-13 Ces Synergies Inc CESX OTC
04-13 Eagle Ford Oil & Gas ECCE OTC
04-13 Unwired Planet, I UPIP NASDAQ
04-14 Avita Medical AVMXY OTC
04-15 Abercrombie & Fitch Co. ANF NYSE
04-15 Angie's List, Inc ANGI NASDAQ
04-15 West Pharmaceutical Services Inc. WST NYSE
04-16 Harvard Apparatus HART NASDAQ 34
04-16 Sunedison, Inc. C SUNE NYSE 7310
04-16 Volga Gas VGAS LONDON
04-17 A.M. Castle & Co. CAS NYSE 98
04-20 Chuma Holdings In CHUM OTC
04-20 Coty Inc. Class A COTY NYSE 8670
04-20 Netqin Mobile Inc NQ NYSE 372
04-20 Voya Financial, Inc. VOYA NYSE 10420
04-21 Amazing Energy Oil & Gas AMAZD NQB 31
04-21 Rolls Royce Grp Adr RYCEY OTC
04-22 Balchem Cp BCPC NASDAQ 1710
04-22 Manitou Gold Inc MNTUF OTC 2
04-22 Prestige Brands Holdings, Inc. PBH NYSE 2240
04-22 Transocean Inc. RIG NYSE 5960
04-22 Volvo Ab Cl B Adr VOLVY OTC
04-24 Houston American HUSA NYSE 11
04-24 Laserlock Techs LLTI OTC
04-24 Wherevertv Broadcast TVTV OTC
04-27 Campus Crest Comm CCG NYSE 420
04-27 Fuel Systems Solutions, Inc. FSYS NASDAQ 216
04-27 Zogenix, Inc. ZGNX NASDAQ 210
APRIL 2015 MANAGEMENT CHANGE STATISTICS
C-LEVEL MANAGEMENT CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 1270
GRAND TOTAL - 1270
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Drugs/Biotech - 136> Banking - 96
> Energy - 75
> Energy - 75
APRIL 2015 CEO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 163
GRAND TOTAL - 163
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Banking - 16
> Energy - 16> Drugs/Biotech - 14
> Manufacturing - 11
> Manufacturing - 11
APRIL 2015 CFO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 161
GRAND TOTAL - 161
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Drugs/Biotech - 22
> Business Services - 11
> Health Services - 10
> Manufacturing - 10
> Business Services - 11
> Health Services - 10
> Manufacturing - 10
APRIL 2015 BOARD OF DIRECTOR CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 435
GRAND TOTAL - 435
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Drugs/Biotech - 56
> Energy - 34
> Banking - 31
> Energy - 34
> Banking - 31
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.
