November Executive Turnover Points Positive For U.S. Economy

Liberum Research's latest November executive turnover numbers were even more positive than the previous month of October and continued to point in a positive direction for the American economy.  November's executive turnover numbers showed increases over last year's November figures in all four key categories Liberum analyzes for its monthly report (see details below).  The executive turnover figures in November as compared to the previous month of October also showed positive increases in all four categories, something we have not seen for a long time and together indicates positively for the U.S. economy.  The growing executive turnover numbers dovetailed directly with the positive employment growth numbers released last week by ADP for November and more importantly, the U.S. Government's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) November Employment Report.

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 ADP and BLS November Reports exceeded expectations by most analysts and as a result, the Federal Reserve seems even more likely to begin raising interest rates slightly for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis.  According to the ADP November Report:

ADP National Employment Report: Private Sector Employment Increased by 

217,000 Jobs from October to November according to the November ADP National Employment Report®

"The strongest gains in the service sector since June led to greater employment growth in November,”

said Ahu Yildirmaz, VP and head of the ADP Research Institute. “The increase was driven in large part 

by a rebound in professional/business service jobs.”

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, said, “Job growth remains strong and steady. The 

current pace of job creation is twice that needed to absorb growth in the working age population. The 

economy is fast approaching full employment and will be there no later than next summer.”

 

 

 

The employment news from the U.S. Government's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) was very close to ADP's Employment Report.  According to the November BLS Report:

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 211,000 in November, and the unemployment

rate was unchanged at 5.0 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in construction, professional and technical services, and healthcare.

In November, the unemployment rate held at 5.0 percent, and the number of unemployed persons, at 7.9 million, was essentially unchanged. Over the past 12 months, the

unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons are down by 0.8 percentage point and 1.1 million, respectively.

Liberum expects the early winter months will continue to see the economy moving forward but, as we stated in the previous month and earlier months, with blips along the way.  We continue to expect executive turnover numbers in the early winter months will also remain fairly positive. Overall, we remain positive for the American Economy despite the likelihood of a slight increase in interest rates from the Federal Reserve and continuing economic difficulties abroad.

 

Liberum Comparison Breakdown of Key November Executive Turnover Figures

Below is a breakdown of Liberum's key executive category percentage changes for November 2015 compared with November a year earlier and the previous month of October 2015.    

 

November 2014 Compared to November 2015

• For November 2015 increases in turnover occurred in all four key categories.  CEO changes increased 18% from November a year earlier, CFO changes increased 6%, C-level changes increased 37%, and board of director changes increased 44%, respectively.  

October 2015 Compared to November 2015

• The month to month changes in executive turnover for all four key categories saw increases. CEO changes increased 28%, CFO changes increased 6%, C-level changes increased 9%, and board of director changes increased 14%.      

Below are the overall turnover totals for November 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 can use the information to generate new leads and new clients, and consulting firms can use the data for a variety of analytical 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 - NOVEMBER 2015
55 COMPANIES WITH CEO CHANGES WORTH RE-EXAMINING

 

According to Liberum's Management Change Database, a total of 250 CEO related changes occurred during November 2015. Here are 51 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    

Change date   Co name Ticker Market cap

11-02 Enteromedics Inc.  ETRM  NASDAQ  33

11-02 Intrum Justitia IJ  STO 21170

11-02 Quest Resource Ho  QRHC NASDAQ  85

11-03 Commerzbank  CBK LONDON

11-03 DSW Inc.  DSW  NYSE  2180

11-03 Groupon, Inc.  GRPN  NASDAQ  2640

11-03 Kappahl KAHL  STO  2370

11-03 Razor Resources Inc  RZOR  OTC  607830

11-04 Beijer Electronic  BELE  STO  1020

11-04 First Capital Bcp  FCVA NASDAQ  73

11-04 Lumber Liquidator  LL  NYSE  420

11-05 Armistice Resourc  AZ  TORONTO 42

11-05 Wound Mgmt Tech  WNDM  OTC  7

11-09 E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co  DD  NYSE  58520

11-09 Elementis  ELM  CVE

11-09 Loomis AB  LOOMB  STO

11-09 Santos  SSLTY  OTC  3710

11-09 XLI Technologies, Inc.  MYXY  32

11-10 Jason Industries, Inc.  JASN  NASDAQ  84

11-12 Advance Auto Parts, Inc.  AAP  NYSE  12050

11-12 Connecture, Inc.  CNXR NASDAQ  93

11-12 Entree Gold Inc.  EGI  NYSE  38

11-12 Platinum Group Me   PLG  NYSE 161

11-12 Sunshine Capital, Inc.  SCNP  OTC

11-13 La Quinta Holding   LQ  NYSE  1910

11-13 LDK Solar Co Ltd.  LDKYQ  OTC  20

11-16 CNA Financial Corporation  CNA  NYSE  9740

11-17 Akeena Solar, Inc  WEST  OTC  618197

11-17 Bob Evans Farms, Inc.  BOBE  NASDAQ  

11-17 Elephant Talk Com   ETAK  NYSE  58

11-17 TiVo Inc.  TIVO  NASDAQ  893

11-17 Virtual Piggy, Inc VPIG  OTC  38

11-18 Bridgeline Digital, Inc. BLIN  NASDAQ  5

11-18 Intelligent Livin  ILIV  OTC  14019

11-18 Korian SA  KORI  EPA  2840

11-18 Pivot Pharmaceuticals Inc  PVOTF  OTC  98

11-19 Kalobios Pharmace  KBIO  UTC  75

11-19 Kemper Corporation  KMPR  NYSE  2110

11-19 Lantronix, Inc.  LTRX  NASDAQ  17

11-19 Markel Corporation  MKL  NYSE  12560

11-19 NBC Capital Corporation NBY  14

11-19 Portage Biotech Inc  PTGEF  OTC  33

11-20 Avalanche Biotechnologies Inc  AAVL  NASDAQ  186

11-23 Alfa Laval  ALFALAVAL  OTC

11-23 Global Healthcare  GBCS  OTC  16

11-23 TerraForm Global, Inc.  GLBL  NASDAQ  480

11-23 Truecar, Inc.  TRUE  NASDAQ  719

11-24 Akers Biosciences  AKER  NASDAQ  10

11-25 MannKind Corporation  MNKD  NASDAQ  896

11-27 Point Capital Inc  PTCI  OTC  85

11-30 Broadwind Energy,  BWEN  NASDAQ  30

 

NOVEMBER 2015 MANAGEMENT CHANGE STATISTICS

C-LEVEL MANAGEMENT CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 1,817

TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS

> Drugs- 174> Banking - 161
> Energy - 143

NOVEMBER 2015 CEO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 250

TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS

> Drugs/Biotech - 20

> Energy- 20> Banking - 18
> Metals/Mining - 17

NOVEMBER 2015 CFO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 223

TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS

> Drugs/Biotech - 24
> Energy - 16
> Banking - 14

NOVEMBER 2015 BOARD OF DIRECTOR CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 550

TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS

> Drugs/Biotech - 75
> Energy - 43
> Banking - 32

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 CFOs 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 over ten-year-old database offers institutional investors the ability to examine: 

• an individual company, 
• sector/s, 
• corporate titles
• groups of companies, 
• market caps
• 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. 

Subscribers often take the service as an electronic feed rather than as an online service. Through the use of Liberum's electronic feed, investment firms have the ability to integrate Liberum's management change data with a variety of other feeds and data applications which, when combined, could be used as a sophisticated method for developing potential short and long-term investment ideas.  Liberum's database whether used as an online tool, an electronic feed, or as a means to receive customized reports is broken down into a number of highly specific fields that afford a user the ability to easily search and manipulate data.