April a Mixed Month for Executive Turnover and Employment Growth

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

 

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

TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS

> Drugs/Biotech - 136> Banking - 96
> Energy - 75

APRIL 2015 CEO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 163

TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS

> Banking - 16

> Energy - 16> Drugs/Biotech - 14
> Manufacturing - 11

APRIL 2015 CFO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 161

TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS

> Drugs/Biotech - 22
> Business Services - 11
> Health Services - 10
> Manufacturing - 10

APRIL 2015 BOARD OF DIRECTOR CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 435

TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS

> Drugs/Biotech - 56
> 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.