Management Turnover as Change Agent

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

October Executive Turnover Points Positive

Liberum Research's latest October executive turnover numbers continued to point in a positive direction for the American ecoonomy.  October's executive turnover numbers showed increases over last year's October figures in three out of four key categories Liberum analyzes for its monthly report (see details below).  The executive turnover figures in October as compared to the previous month of September, on the other hand, were not nearly as positive, three out of the four categories saw declines, while the remaining category saw a slight increase.  Despite the middling numbers, we remain optimistic about the economy, overall employment growth, and continuing turnover at public companies.

Typically, Liberum's monthly executive turnover figures tend to follow a similar pattern with the U.S. Government's Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) Monthly Employment Report as well as ADP's Monthly Private Employment Report.  The government's employment figures for October will be released this coming Friday, November 6, and Liberum expects them to be better than September's revised figures.  Earlier today, ADP released its October 2015 Employment Report and while it was not terrific, it was on target with analyst's expectations.  According to the Report:


Private sector employment increased by 182,000 jobs from September to October.

"Firm size contributions to October employment gains returned to the same pattern we had been seeing for some time prior to September as small businesses rebounded to account for almost half the jobs added,” said Ahu Yildirmaz, VP and head of the ADP Research Institute. “Large companies continue to be negatively impacted by trends such as low oil prices and the strong dollar driving weaker exports. On the other hand, small businesses can benefit from these same trends.”


Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, said, “Job growth as measured by the ADP Research Institute is not slowing meaningfully in contrast with the recent slowdown in the government’s data. The economy is creating close to 200,000 jobs per month. Job gains are broad based with energy and manufacturing alone subtracting from the top line. Small businesses, in particular, are contributing to the labor market’s solid performance.” 
 

Liberum expects the remaining fall months will continue to see the economy moving forward but, as we stated in the previous month, with blips along the way.  We continue to expect excecutive turnover numbers in the fall and early winter months will also remain fairly positive. Overall, we remain quite positive for the American Economy despite the likelihood of a slight increase in interest rates from the Federal Reserve, possibly in December, and contiuing economic difficulties abroad.
 
Liberum Comparison Breakdown of Key October Executive Turnover Figures

Below is a breakdown of Liberum's key executive category percentage changes for October 2015 compared with October a year earlier and the previous month of September 2015.    
October 2014 Compared to October 2015
  • For October 2015 increases in turnover occured in three out of four key categories.  CEO changes decreased 8% from October a year earlier, while CFO changes increased 10%, C-level changes increased a 18%, and board of director changes increased 6% respectively.  
September 2015 Compared to October 2015
  • The month to month changes in executive turnover for three out of the four key categories, on the other hand, were characterized by declines. CEO changes declined 3%, CFO changes increased 3%, C-level changes declined 11%, and board of director changes declined 19%.      
Below are the overall turnover totals for October 2015.  The information is just illustrative of how institutional investors could view executive turnover and its possible relationship with a company's performance.

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KEY CEO CHANGES - OCTOBER 2015
55 COMPANIES WITH CEO CHANGES WORTH RE-EXAMINING
According to Liberum's Management Change Database, a total of 195 CEO related changes occurred during October 2015. Here are 55 changes 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    
10-01 Autobytel Inc. ABTL  NASDAQ  212
10-01 Jamba, Inc.  JMBA  NASDAQ  223
10-01 Puget Technologie  PUGE  OTC  463159
10-01 SUPERVALU INC.  SVU  NYSE  1850
10-01 Travelzoo Inc.  TZOO  NASDAQ  122
10-01 TV Azteca  AZTEF  OTC  448
10-01 XenoPort, Inc.  XNPT  NASDAQ  220
10-02 Altair Nanotechnologies, Inc.  ALTI  OTC  2
10-02 Majesco Entertainment Co.  COOL  NASDAQ
10-02 Pharmacyte Biotech  PMCB  OTC  66
10-05 Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc.  ARNA  NASDAQ  521
10-05 Cardica, Inc.  CRDC  NASDAQ  23
10-05 E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company  DD  NYSE  46400
10-05 Jayhawk Energy In  JYHW  OTC  1
10-05 Kulicke and Soffa Industries Inc.  KLIC NASDAQ  686
10-05 SmartChase Corp  SCHS  OTC  3
10-05 Tweeter Home Entertainment Group, Inc.  TWTR  NYSE 18450
10-13 Barclays PLC (ADR)  BCS NYSE  55010
10-13 Fastenal Company  FAST  NASDAQ  11070
10-13 The Carlyle Group  CG  NASDAQ  1520
10-14 Famous Brands Ltd  F5B  BEB
10-14 Great Lakes Dredg  GLDD NASDAQ  323
10-14 Imation Corp.  IMN  NYSE  85
10-15 Go Green Global T  GOGR OTC  3
10-15 Terex Corporation  TEX  NYSE  2010
10-19 21vianet Group, I  VNET  NASDAQ  1760
10-19 Biotime, Inc. Com  BTX  NYSE  316
10-19 Eutelsat Communications SA  ETL  WARSAW
10-19 Investment Technology Group  ITG  NYSE  517
10-19 The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc.  THG  NYSE  3610
10-19 United Continental Holdings Inc.  UAL  NYSE  21440
10-20 Aladdin International Inc.  ALAD  OTC  3
10-20 Exar Corporation  EXAR  NYSE  265
10-20 Syngenta AG (ADR)  SYT  NYSE  31750
10-21 National Cinemedi  NCMI NASDAQ  814
10-21 Volt Info Sci Inc  VISI NYSE  172
10-22 420 Property Management, Inc.  DOGOD  107040
10-22 Debenhams  DEB  LONDON 11
10-22 KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp  KS  NYSE  1970
10-22 Platform Specialty Products Corp  PAH  NYSE  2170
10-22 Vince Holding Corp.  VNCE  NYSE  174
10-22 Wall Street Media Co, Inc.  WSCO  OTC  27
10-23 Infosys  INFY  NYSE  42510
10-23 News Corporation  NWSA  NASDAQ  8710
10-23 Paradox Entertainment AB  PDXE  SWEDEN 33
10-26 alpha-En Corp  ALPE  OTC  12
10-26 Cdex Inc Cl  ACDEX  OTC  374679
10-26 Northsight Capital Inc.  NCAP  OTC  10
10-26 Penn Virginia Corporation  PVA  NYSE  47
10-26 Standard Metals Processing Inc  SMPR  OTC  16
10-27 DS Healthcare Group Inc  DSKX  NYSE  58
10-27 LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE  LVMHF  OTC  93370
10-28 Baxter International Inc.  BAX  NYSE  20320
10-28 Chico's FAS, Inc.  CHS  NYSE  1960
10-28 UBS AG (USA)  UBS  NYSE 74440
 
OCTOBER 2015 MANAGEMENT CHANGE STATISTICS
C-LEVEL MANAGEMENT CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 1670

TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Drugs- 180> Banking - 142
> Energy - 112


















OCTOBER 2015 CEO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 195

TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Drugs/Biotech - 18
> Banking - 17> Energy - 13
> Manufacturing - 13



















OCTOBER 2015 CFO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 211

TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Energy - 27
> Drugs/Biotech - 21
> Manufacturing - 14

















OCTOBER 2015 BOARD OF DIRECTOR CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 481

TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Drugs/Biotech - 55
> Banking - 40
> Metals/Mining - 37