NEW YORK, N.Y., March 14, 2018 – The ProxyPulse™ report released today shows steady investor support for company boards of directors and say-on-pay proposals, while expressing concerns about environmental issues.
The report, released by Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR) and PwC’s Governance Insights Center, is based on the results from 1,040 annual shareholder meetings held during the “mini season” between July 1 and December 31, 2017. Additional details, insights, graphics, data, and observations can be found at: www.ProxyPulse.com.
“Environmental issues and improving board diversity are becoming a larger part of the corporate conversation, as seen from voting data and institutional investor actions in early 2018,” said Chuck Callan, senior vice president, regulatory affairs, Broadridge. “Institutional investors are interested and becoming vocal on these topics, even as they are largely supportive of boards and management.”
Paul DeNicola, managing director of the Governance Insights Center for PwC, commented, “Boards of directors and management teams can use the ProxyPulse data to better understand shareholder priorities and voting behavior. This in turn, can help inform their shareholder engagement efforts.”
The ProxyPulse report showed:
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For the first time, shareholder proposals on environmental issues received majority support at a handful of large cap companies
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Average support for shareholder proposals on climate change increased from 27% in the 2016 fall mini-season to 30% in the 2017 fall mini-season
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Overall support for say-on-pay proposals, at 83% on average, continues to be strong
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3,337 directors were nominated for election and, on average, received the support of 95% of the shares voted, an increase of 2% over the 2016 mini-season
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Institutional investors continued to vote at high rates, at 86% of the shares they held
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Retail investor voting rates remained relatively low, at 27%, while they owned 35% of the shares