Management Turnover as Change Agent

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

August's Tepid Executive Turnover Raises Concerns

Liberum's executive turnover data for August 2013 showed a somewhat confusing trend for the American economy.  All four key executive turnover categories (CEOs, CFOs, C-level Execs and Board of Directors) saw percentage declines from the same month a year earlier yet, August saw increases in each of the four key categories from the previous month of July 2013.  The somewhat confusing trend for August was also seen in the latest monthly employment numbers released by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and ADP's August Employment Report.  August's Liberum Research's executive turnover data trended closely with the August monthly Employment Data released from the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and from ADP's August Employment Report.  Despite August's tepid numbers, Liberum expects excutive turnvoer to trend upward as we move into the fall.

According to the BLS August Employment Report released September 6th, which was not as good as Analysts expected,:

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 169,000 in August, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 7.3 percent...

The same was true for ADP's 2013 August Employment Report released on September 5th reported:

Private sector employment increased by 176,000 jobs from July to August...
Below is a breakdown of Liberum's key executive category percentage changes for August 2013 compared with August a year earlier and the previous month of July 2013.   
  • For August 2013 CEO changes declined 13% from a year earlier, CFO changes declined 5%, overall C-level (as defined by Liberum Research as board of directors, CEOs, CFOs down to corporate VPs) changes declined 6% and board of director changes declined 3% as compared with August 2012 totals. 
  • The month to month change in executive turnover (July 2013 to August 2013) showed a somewhat different picture with an 8% increase in CEOs, CFO changes increased 25%, overall C-level changes increased a mere 2% and board of director changes increased 14%, respectively.       
Below are the overall turnover figures for August.  
KEY CEO CHANGES - AUGUST 201367 COMPANIES WITH CEO CHANGES WORTH RE-EXAMINING 
According to Liberum's Management Change Database, a total of 206 CEO related changes occurred during August 2013. Here are a whopping 67 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. 

DATE   COMPANY TICKER  EXCHANGE  MARKET CAP $ MILLIONS    
08-01 Globalwise Invest  GWIV   OBB  5
08-01 The Marcus Corporation   MCS NYSE  355
08-01 Weight Watchers Int'l, Inc. WTW  NYSE  2152
08-02 Elite Pharma Inc ELTP   OBB
08-02 Liposcience, Inc.  LPDX   NASDAQ  78
08-02 Rock-Tenn Company RKT NYSE  8451
08-05 Patapsco Bancorp  PATD OBB  5
08-07 Bacterin Internat   BONE  NYSE  26
08-07 Groupon, Inc.   GRPN  NASDAQ  7026
08-07 Murphy Oil Corp  MUR  NYSE  13191
08-07 Selectica, Inc.   SLTC   NASDAQ  21
08-08 Islet Sciences, I  ISLT   OTN  25
08-08 Red Lion Hotels Corp   RLH   NYSE  116
08-08 Shoretel, Inc.   SHOR  NASDAQ  259
08-08 Standex Int'l Corp.   SXI  NYSE  760
08-08 Thompson Crk Mtls  TC   NYSE  582
08-09 American Woodmark Corp   AMWD   NASDAQ  494
08-09 Merge Technologies Inc   MRGE   NASDAQ  231
08-09 Semgroup Corporat   SEMG   NYSE  2316
08-09 United Community Fin Corp   UCFC   NASDAQ  178
08-12 Lot78, Inc LOTE   OTN  71
08-13 Liberty Energy Co   LBYE OTN  4
08-14 American Stad Ene  ASEN  OTN  12
08-14 Pure Bioscience   PURE  OTN  10
08-14 Silverstar Mining   SLVM  OTN  446
08-15 Global Digital So   GDSI   OTN  31
08-15 Jbi, Inc.   JBII   OTN  36
08-15 LTC Properties, Inc.  LTC   NYSE  1269
08-15 Sync2 Networks Co  SYNW   OTN  721
08-15 The First Marblehead Corp   FMD  NYSE  175
08-16 A.P. Pharma, Inc.  APPA   OBB  129
08-16 Start Scientific   STSC  OTN  109
08-18 Catalyst Paper   CYSTF   OTN  15
08-19 United Silver Cor   USCZF   OTN  2
08-19 Yancoal Australia   YACAF   OTN  875
08-20 Agricon Global Co   AGRC  OTN  11
08-20 Bae Systems   BA  LSS  143
08-20 Smtp Inc   SMTP   OBB  15
08-20 Washington   REIT   WRE NYSE  1625
08-21 Central European Media   CETV  NASDAQ  584
08-21 Ssh Communication  SCSYF   96
08-21 Vestas Wind Syste  VWS  FRA
08-21 Viewcast.Com  VCST  OBB  4
08-22 Invivo Therapeuti   NVIV   OBB  310
08-22 Lsl Property Serv   LSLPF  OTN  737
08-22 Skyline Medical I   SKLN   OTN  36
08-23 Green Mountain Coffee Roasters  GMCR   NASDAQ  13063
08-23 Microsoft Corporation    MSFT   NASDAQ  275100
08-23 Sierra Vista Bank  SVBA  OTN  9
08-23 Solar Power, Inc.  SOPW  OTN  20
08-23 Solta Medical, In   SLTM  NASDAQ  171
08-23 Zumtobel Ag   ZMTBF  OTN  518
08-26 Blackbaud, Inc.  BLKB  NASDAQ  1619
08-26 Echo Therapeutics  ECTE  NASDAQ  26
08-26 Integrated Device  IDTI  NASDAQ  1335
08-26 John Bean Tech Co  JBT  NYSE  684
08-26 Nexus Enterprise   NXES  OTN  5
08-26 Wesdome Gold Mine  WDO  TOR  71
08-27 Harvard Bioscience, Inc.   HBIO  NASDAQ  151
08-27 Monarchy Resource  MONK  OBB  6
08-28 Insignia Systems,  ISIG NASDAQ  34
08-28 Waters Corporatio   WAT   NYSE  8397
08-29 On the Move Sys C  OMVS   OTN  4
08-30 Altair Nanotechnologies, Inc.  ALTI   NASDAQ  27
08-30 New Jersey Mining  NJMC   OTN  3
08-30 Psm Holdings Inc   PSMH  OBB  12
08-30 Redfin Network In  RFNN   OTN  340
AUGUST 2013 MANAGEMENT CHANGE STATISTICS
C-LEVEL MANAGEMENT CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 1440
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Banking - 119
> Metals/Mining - 112
> Drugs/Biotech - 111



AUGUST 2013 CEO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 206
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
>MetalsMining - 24
>Drugs/Biotech - 21
>Energy - 20



AUGUST 2013 CFO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 205
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
>Metals/Mining - 25
>Drugs/Biotech - 23
>Banking - 17
>Energy - 17




AUGUST 2013 BOARD OF DIRECTOR CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 524
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
>Metals/Mining - 54
>Drugs/Biotech - 36
>Energy - 36




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Monday, June 10, 2013

May Executive Turnover Continues Trending Positive - Investment Ops Grow

Liberum's executive turnover data for May 2013 was quite similar to April 2013's data.  The overall executive turnover level was reasonably positive and while it still continues to have areas for concern, it remains a positive indicator for the Amercian economy.  All four key executive turnover categories (CEOs, CFOs, C-level Execs and Board of Directors) saw percentage declines from the same month a year earlier but May saw a reasonable increase from April 2013 in overall executive turnover for three out of the four key categories (CEO change total remained nearly the same) which remains a positive sign for the economy and was similar to the trend Liberum observed for April 2013 as compared to March 2013.  Liberums exexecutive data successfully predicted both May's ADP Employment Report and the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics May Employment Report which were both predicted by most pundents to be somewhat negative..

Below is a breakdown of the key executive category percentage changes for May 2013 compared with May a year earlier and the previous month of April 2013.   
  • For May 2013 CEO changes declined 8% from a year earlier, CFO changes declined 4%, overall C-level (as defined by Liberum Research as board of directors, CEOs, CFOs down to corporate VPs) changes declined 13% and board of director changes declined 5% as compared with May 2012 totals. 
  • The month to month change in executive turnover (April 2013 to May 2013) showed a slightly different picture with a 0% change in CEOs, CFO changes increased 12%, overall C-level changes increased 10% and board of director changes increased 18%, respectively.       
Below are the overall turnover figures for May.  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.  

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.
 
KEY CEO CHANGES - MAY 201331 COMPANIES WITH CEO CHANGES WORTH RE-EXAMINING 
According to Liberum's Management Change Database, a total of 223 CEO related changes occurred during May 2013. Here are 31 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. 

DATE   COMPANY TICKER  EXCHANGE  MARKET CAP $ MILLIONS
05-01 Gryphon Gold Gorp   GYPH  OBB
05-01 Symmetricom, Inc.   SYMM  NASDAQ
05-02 Agere Systems, Inc.   AGR  
05-02 First Data Corporation   FDC  
05-02 Intel Corporation   INTC  NASDAQ   119300
05-02 Thq Inc.   THQIQ  OTN  206
05-03 Big Lots Inc.   BIG  NYSE  2134
05-07 Liberty Energy Co   LBYE  OTN  7
05-07 WebMD Health Corp.   WBMD  NASDAQ  1420
05-08 Bg Medicine, Inc.   BGMD  NASDAQ
05-08 Fusion-Io, Inc. C   FIO  NYSE  1478
05-09 Carbon Sciences,   CABN  OTN
05-10 A.P. Pharma, Inc.   APPA  OBB  134
05-15 Harvard Bioscience, Inc.   HBIO  NASDAQ  156
05-16 Eastman Chemical Company   EMN  NYSE  11448
05-17 Bar Harbor Bankshares   BHB  NYSE  140
05-17 Helmer Directiona   EXLA   180
05-18 Capital Southwest Corp.   CSWC  NASDAQ  521
05-20 Chesapeake Energy Corporation   CHK  NYSE  14021
05-20 SMTC Corporation (USA)   SMTX  NASDAQ  33
05-20 Vision-Sciences, Inc.   VSCI  NASDAQ  49
05-21 Alternative Energ   AEGY  OBB  623
05-21 Flagstar Bancorp, Inc.   FBC  NYSE  767
05-21 Protext Mobility   TXTM  OTN  764
05-22 iGATE Corporation   IGTE  NASDAQ  821
05-23 Forest Laboratories, Inc.   FRX  NYSE  10365
05-23 The Procter & Gamble Company   PG  NYSE  224400
05-24 Apollo Group, Inc.   APOL  NASDAQ  2364
05-24 Gleacher & Compan   GLCH  NASDAQ  84
05-29 Cannabis Science   CBIS  OTN  31
05-30 Tessera Technologies, Inc.   TSRA  NASDAQ  1105
 
MAY 2013 MANAGEMENT CHANGE STATISTICS
C-LEVEL MANAGEMENT CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 1512
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Banking - 171> Drugs/Biotech - 120
> Energy - 108

MAY 2013 CEO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 223
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Banking - 25> Drugs/Biotech - 20
> Energy - 20

MAY 2013 CFO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 212
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Banking  - 17
> Drugs/Biotech - 17
> Metals/Mining - 14

MAY 2013 BOARD OF DIRECTOR CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 542
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Drugs/Biotech - 62
> Energy - 55
> Banking - 46

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. 

ABOUT LIBERUM

The largest database of C-level executive change at public companies.  Frequently quoted in the financial press, Liberum helps investors monitor this important, continuous stream of investment events.  The data is also useful for investment bankers, private equity, executive search and consulting firms.  The data can be used in numerous ways. Daily customizable alerts, a searchable database, custom reports, xml feeds.   Liberum clients get the data the way they can best exploit it.  Get a short trial.  And be sure to check out our management change blog. 
 

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Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Worrisome Trend for March 2013 and First Quarter Executive Turnover


The latest quarterly and monthly executive turnover results have raised some concerns for Liberum Research with regard to the American and Canadian economies.  Both first quarter and March executive turnover totals for CEOs, CFOs and overall C-level executives (board of directors down to VP level)  showed a significant drop from the previous monthly and year earlier totals raising a concern that the economies could be in-store for a negative change.  Executive turnover totals have always served as a leading economic indicator.  When turnover rises it usually portends future economic and job growth while declining turnover portends a possible decline in economic and job growth. Despite the most recent declining figures, Liberum believes the latest drop in executive turnover totals is only a momentary blip in the growing turnover trend that has been in place now for the last two years. 
 
Liberum has put together below a quarterly breakdown of executive turnover totals for CEOs, CFOs and C-level executives covering North America from 2008 through this last quarter. Most of the below quarterly numbers showed continuing declines until the second quarter of 2011.  At this point, the numbers began to reverse themselves.  Turnover at the executive levels of corporate America began to grow.  Companies began again to consider new blood and often looked to change their corporate strategies as kernels of opportunity began to sprout ever so slightly.  Anyone investing in the market must pay special attention to executive turnover both at the top and the middle executive ranks.  Failure to do so, will result in lost opportunities or worse. To take advantage of these changes, get a free trial to Liberum's Online Management Change Database (more than 200,000 data points).  Just call Richard at 212-988-5497 or send an email to richard@twst.com requesting your free trial.
 
Below is a simple table outlining the quarterly turnover totals as registered through Liberum's Management Change Database for 2008 through the first quarter of 2013 for CEO, CFO and overall C-level turnover.  To get more extensive turnover details contact Liberum.  

 Total CEO Turnover Comparisons   
                  
 Year 2008    2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 
1st Quarter 745491 388346 680 583 
 2nd Quarter596 380321 581665  
 3rd Quarter533409298713 636 
 4th Quarter461430328697 673 
 Annual Total2,3351,7101,3352,337 2,654        583
 
 
 Total CFO Turnover Comparisons 
                       
 Year 2008    2009 2010 2011 2012  2013
1st Quarter 593 332 296 280 640 495 
 2nd Quarter551 326 273 404612  
 3rd Quarter438 279 256629 598 
 4th Quarter364 313  258   476569 
 Annual Total1,9461,250 1,0831,789 2,419495
 
 
 Total C-level Turnover Comparisons
       
 Year 2008    2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 
1st Quarter 6735 4061 34532863 5442 3971 
 2nd Quarter7430 5051 3199 40415036 
 3rd Quarter4865 3690 25225349 4235 
 4th Quarter4277 3439  2381   4596 4197 
 Annual Total23,307 16,241 11,55516,849 18,9103971
 
 

The quarterly trend for key executives (above) illustrates a potential worry for the North American economy.   From a monthly perspective, March 2013 executive turnover totals were also a bit worrisome in most of the key categories.  Investors can ill afford to ignore executive turnover at the top of a firm and in the middle level.  Ignoring executive changes could mean missing a major investment opportunity or may be essential in avoiding a serious investment pitfall. Consider subscribing to Liberum's online Management Change Database or get your free trial now.  Once a subscriber, you will never miss a key executive change again and will be able to use the extensive data to make your own predictions.  

The latest monthly comparison figures with regard to executive turnover for March 2013 with those of March 2012 and February 2013 and March 2013 are as follows:  
  • CEO turnover for March 2013 declined 11% from that of March 2012, CFO turnover declined 41%, while overall C-level turnover declined 30%.  The month to month change from February 2013 to March 2013 showed a decline of 15% for CEOs, a decline of 16% for CFOs and a decline of 3% with regard to C-level changes.  This is the first registered decline in all three categories for some time.  It does not yet represent a trend but should be followed closely for the next few months.
In the below report, Liberum has focused on twenty two CEO changes of special significance for the month of March. We have also put together the overall turnover figures for the month of March 2013.  The below information is just illustrative of how investors could view executive turnover and its possible relationship with a company's performance. The same could be done for COOs, Presidents, Chairmans etc.just through the database.

DATE       COMPANY   TICKER    EXCHANGE   MARKET CAP $ MILLIONS
03-01 Commercial Veh Group  CVGI  NASDAQ  232
03-06 AmeriGas Partners  APU  NYSE  4049
03-06 Digital River, Inc. DRIV  NASDAQ  474
03-07 Endeavor Power Co  EDVP  OTN  33
03-07 Pandora Media, In  P  NYSE  2348
03-08 Aastrom Biosciences  ASTM  NASDAQ 56
03-08 Mobile Integrated   MIBI    OTN  28
03-10 Intersil Corp  ISIL  NASDAQ
03-12 VeriFone Holdings  PAY  NYSE   2309
03-13 Orthofix Int'l NV  OFIX  NASDAQ
03-13 Uranium Resources  URRE  NASDAQ  44
03-14 Hittite Microwave  HITT  NASDAQ  1875
03-18 3power Energy Gr  PSPW  OTN  7
03-18 American Science  ASEI  NASDAQ  495
03-18 Apricus Bioscienc  APRI  NASDAQ
03-18 Skullcandy, Inc   SKUL  NASDAQ
03-18 Spirit Aerosystem  SPR  NYSE  2713
03-19 As Seen On Tv Inc  ASTV  OBB  20
03-19 Cellynx Group Inc CYNX  OTN  146
03-19 Electronic Arts I  EA  NASDAQ   5161
03-19 Mobile Mini, Inc   MINI  NASDAQ  1316
03-27 Liqtech Intl Inc  LIQT  OBB  58

MARCH 2013 MANAGEMENT CHANGE STATISTICS
C-LEVEL MANAGEMENT CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 1243
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Banking - 108
> Drugs/Biotech - 108
> Energy- 108
MARCH 2013 CEO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 176
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Banking - 16
> Drugs/Biotech - 16
> Energy - 16
MARCH 2013 CFO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 136
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Energy - 15
> Drugs/Biotech - 9> Banking - 7
> Semiconductors - 7
> Software - 7
MARCH 2013 BOARD OF DIRECTOR CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 455
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
> Energy - 51
> Drugs/Biotech - 50
> Business Services - 34
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. Even when one excludes the major executive changes that continue to impact the troubled financial sector other industry sectors have management change related investment opportunities that merit examination.
Liberum's seven year old database offers institutional investors the ability to examine an individual company, sector/s, 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.  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 weekly, monthly or annual reports is broken down into a number of highly specific fields that afford a user the ability to search and manipulate data.  
Investors interested in special situation opportunities or corporate management changes should consider taking a free trial to Liberum's Management Change Database to determine the usefulness of the service.  To get a no obligation trial, call Richard Jacovitz at 212-988-5497 or send an email request. The next step is to get a reliable source of these investment leads - and that's why funds use Liberum, a division of The Wall Street Transcript. 

ABOUT LIBERUM
The largest database of C-level executive change at public companies.  Frequently quoted in the financial press, Liberum helps investors monitor this important, continuous stream of investment events.  The data is also useful for investment bankers, private equity, executive search and consulting firms.  The data can be used in numerous ways. 

Daily customizable alerts, a searchable database, custom reports, xml feeds.   Liberum clients get the data the way they can best exploit it.  Get your short trial now.  And be sure to check out our management change blog. 
 
Best,

Richard

Richard Jacovitz
SVP Director of Research
Tel. 212-988-5497
email: richard@twst.com
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