Yahoo Finance Does Essex Property Trust, Inc.’s (NYSE:ESS) CEO Pay Compare Well With Peers?
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Mike Schall has been the CEO of Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) since 2011. This analysis aims first to contrast CEO compensation with other large companies. After that, we will consider the growth in the business. And finally we will reflect on how common stockholders have fared in the last few years, as a secondary measure of performance. The aim of all this is to consider the appropriateness of CEO pay levels.
View our latest analysis for Essex Property Trust
How Does Mike Schall’s Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?
At the time of writing our data says that Essex Property Trust, Inc. has a market cap of US$19b, and is paying total annual CEO compensation of US$4.6m. (This is based on the year to 2017). While we always look at total compensation first, we note that the salary component is less, at US$700k. We took a group of companies with market capitalizations over US$8.0b, and calculated the median CEO compensation to be US$11m. There aren’t very many mega-cap companies, so we had to take a wide range to get a meaningful comparison figure.
A first glance this seems like a real positive for shareholders, since Mike Schall is paid less than the average compensation paid by other large companies. However, before we heap on the praise, we should delve deeper to understand business performance.
You can see a visual representation of the CEO compensation at Essex Property Trust, below.
Is Essex Property Trust, Inc. Growing?
On average over the last three years, Essex Property Trust, Inc. has grown earnings per share (EPS) by 13% each year (using a line of best fit). It achieved revenue growth of 5.6% over the last year.
This demonstrates that the company has been improving recently. A good result. It’s good to see a bit of revenue growth, as this suggests the business is able to grow sustainably. It could be important to check this free visual depiction of what analysts expect for the future.
Has Essex Property Trust, Inc. Been A Good Investment?
Most shareholders would probably be pleased with Essex Property Trust, Inc. for providing a total return of 51% over three years. So they may not be at all concerned if the CEO were to be paid more than is normal for companies around the same size.
In Summary…
It looks like Essex Property Trust, Inc. pays its CEO less than the average at large companies. Considering the underlying business is growing earnings, this would suggest the pay is modest. And given most shareholders are probably very happy with recent returns, you might even think that Mike Schall deserves a raise!
It is relatively rare to see a modestly paid CEO when performance is so impressive. It would be even more positive if company insiders are buying shares. Shareholders may want to check for free if Essex Property Trust insiders are buying or selling shares.
Important note: Essex Property Trust may not be the best stock to buy. You might find something better in this list of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt.
To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
