Yahoo Finance How Should Investors Feel About CMS Energy Corporation's (NYSE:CMS) CEO Pay?
In 2016 Patti Poppe was appointed CEO of CMS Energy Corporation (NYSE:CMS). This analysis aims first to contrast CEO compensation with other large companies. Then we'll look at a snap shot of the business growth. And finally we will reflect on how common stockholders have fared in the last few years, as a secondary measure of performance. This process should give us an idea about how appropriately the CEO is paid.
See our latest analysis for CMS Energy
How Does Patti Poppe's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?
At the time of writing, our data says that CMS Energy Corporation has a market cap of US$18b, and reported total annual CEO compensation of US$8.1m for the year to December 2018. We think total compensation is more important but we note that the CEO salary is lower, at US$1.2m. We note that more than half of the total compensation is not the salary; and performance requirements may apply to this non-salary portion. We took a group of companies with market capitalizations over US$8.0b, and calculated the median CEO total 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.
So Patti Poppe is paid around the average of the companies we looked at. While this data point isn't particularly informative alone, it gains more meaning when considered with business performance.
The graphic below shows how CEO compensation at CMS Energy has changed from year to year.
Is CMS Energy Corporation Growing?
CMS Energy Corporation has increased its earnings per share (EPS) by an average of 3.1% a year, over the last three years (using a line of best fit). Revenue was pretty flat on last year.
I would argue that the improvement in revenue isn't particularly impressive, but it is good to see modest EPS growth. It's clear the performance has been quite decent, but it it falls short of outstanding,based on this information. It could be important to check this free visual depiction of what analysts expect for the future.
Has CMS Energy Corporation Been A Good Investment?
Most shareholders would probably be pleased with CMS Energy Corporation for providing a total return of 69% over three years. This strong performance might mean some shareholders don't mind if the CEO were to be paid more than is normal for a company of its size.
In Summary...
Remuneration for Patti Poppe is close enough to the median pay for a CEO of a large company .
The company isn't showing particularly great growth, but shareholder returns have been pleasing. So all things considered I'd venture that the CEO pay is appropriate. So you may want to check if insiders are buying CMS Energy shares with their own money (free access).
Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.
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If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
