How Much Did SDL plc’s (LON:SDL) CEO Pocket Last Year?
Adolfo Hernandez became the CEO of SDL plc (LON:SDL) in 2016. First, this article will compare CEO compensation with compensation at similar sized companies. Next, we’ll consider growth that the business demonstrates. 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 SDL
How Does Adolfo Hernandez’s Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?
At the time of writing our data says that SDL plc has a market cap of UK£420m, and is paying total annual CEO compensation of UK£582k. (This number is for the twelve months until 2017). While we always look at total compensation first, we note that the salary component is less, at UK£500k. When we examined a selection of companies with market caps ranging from UK£158m to UK£633m, we found the median CEO compensation was UK£687k.
That means Adolfo Hernandez receives fairly typical remuneration for the CEO of a company that size. 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 SDL has changed from year to year.
Is SDL plc Growing?
Over the last three years SDL plc has grown its earnings per share (EPS) by an average of 66% per year. In the last year, its revenue is up 2.2%.
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 SDL plc Been A Good Investment?
SDL plc has generated a total shareholder return of 13% over three years, so most shareholders would be reasonably content. But they probably don’t want to see the CEO paid more than is normal for companies around the same size.
In Summary…
Adolfo Hernandez is paid around what is normal the leaders of comparable size companies.
The company is growing EPS but shareholder returns have been sound but not amazing. So upon reflection one could argue that the CEO pay is quite reasonable. CEO compensation is one thing, but it is also interesting to check if the CEO is buying or selling SDL (free visualization of insider trades).
Or you might prefer this data-rich interactive visualization of historic revenue and earnings.
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.