NEW YORK, March 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Broadridge
Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR) and PwC's Governance Insights
Center released their ProxyPulse™ report for the 2015
shareholder meeting "mini-season," analyzing data from 1,053 U.S.
public company shareholder meetings held between July 1, 2015 and December 31,
2015.
This first edition of ProxyPulse for 2016 finds that over the
past four mini-seasons, institutional ownership of shares has grown
from 58 percent to 62 percent of street shares. However, retail
investors remain an important segment owning a significant portion
(38 percent) of shares.
The analysis also revealed that on average, institutions voted
83 percent of their shares during the period, while retail
investors voted only 28 percent, leaving 24 billion retail shares
unvoted.
"Retail investors continue to be an important untapped group for
company engagement," said Chuck
Callan, senior vice president, regulatory affairs,
Broadridge. "There are opportunities to improve engagement with all
shareholders, particularly if a close vote is expected."
"The retail investor vote is especially important in the
mini-season, because the period has a high percentage of smaller
company annual meetings, and these smaller companies tend to have
significant retail ownership," said Paul
DeNicola, managing director of PwC's Governance Insights
Center.
Other findings from the 2015 mini-season include:
- Support for executive compensation remains strong.
Average support for say-on-pay proposals was 80 percent. Eight
percent of say-on-pay votes failed to attain majority shareholder
approval, and 20 percent failed to surpass the 70 percent support
threshold, an important benchmark for many companies and proxy
advisors. Of note, among the 20 percent that failed to reach the 70
percent threshold, retail investors voted 66 percent of their
shares in favor.
- Support for directors declined from last mini-season.
Though support for directors remains high, there was some slippage
this mini-season compared to the 2014 mini-season. 125 directors
failed to attain support from a majority of shares voted this year,
and a total of almost 400 directors failed to reach the 70 percent
support threshold.
- Instances of weak shareholder support can carry over from
year to year. Low levels of shareholder support in director
elections can persist from year to year. Fifty-five percent of
companies that had a director fail to reach the 70 percent
threshold in the 2014 mini-season also had a director fail to
achieve that threshold in the 2015 mini-season.
This issue of ProxyPulse also addresses governance issues
expected to impact the 2016 proxy season and beyond. These issues
include shareholder activism, proxy access, pressures on board
composition, director "over-boarding," and the continued push for
transparency.
About ProxyPulse
ProxyPulse is based in part on Broadridge's processing of shares
held in street name, which accounts for over 80 percent of all
shares outstanding of U.S. publicly-listed companies. Shareholder
voting trends during a proxy season represent a snapshot in time
and may not be predictive of full-year results.
ProxyPulse is a collaboration between Broadridge, the leading
provider of investor communication solutions for financial services
firms, mutual funds and corporate issuers globally, and PwC's
Governance Insights Center a group that supports directors and
investors with governance knowledge to answer tough questions and
tackle complex challenges. In addition, it provides perspectives
from PwC's annual surveys of directors and investors. Visit
ProxyPulse.com to access the full report.
About Broadridge
Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR) is the leading
provider of investor communications and technology-driven solutions
for broker-dealers, banks, mutual funds and corporate issuers
globally. Broadridge's investor communications, securities
processing and managed services solutions help clients reduce their
capital investments in operations infrastructure, allowing them to
increase their focus on core business activities. With over 50
years of experience, Broadridge's infrastructure underpins proxy
voting services for over 90 percent of public companies and mutual
funds in North America, and
processes on average $5 trillion in
fixed income and equity trades per day. Broadridge employs
approximately 7,400 full-time associates in 14 countries. For more
information about Broadridge, please visit www.broadridge.com.
About PwC US
At PwC US, our purpose is to build trust in society and solve
important problems. We're a network of firms in 157 countries with
more than 208,000 people who are committed to delivering quality in
assurance, advisory and tax services. Find out more and tell us
what matters to you by visiting us at www.pwc.com.
PwC US refers to the PwC network and/or one or more of its
member firms, each of which is a separate legal entity. Please see
www.pwc.com/structure for further details.
About PwC's Governance Insights Center
We support you with governance knowledge to answer tough
questions and tackle complex challenges. Learn from our network of
subject-matter experts, business leaders, and experienced peers as
they share their insights and the latest thinking on current
issues. Beyond governance, we help directors and investors alike
better understand new financial accounting standards so they can
make better oversight and investment decisions. You can count on
use to help you connect all the dots for a more complete
perspective — and step ahead with confidence. For more information
about PwC's Governance Insights Center, please visit
http://www.pwc.com/us/en/governance-insights-center
Media Contacts:
Jenna J.
Focarino
+1-212-681-1700 ext.115
+1-845-893-7586 cell
jfocarino@torrenzano.com
Stephanie Corzett
PwC US
+1-617-530-4977
stephanie.c.corzett@pwc.com
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visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/retail-investors-remain-an-important-untapped-shareholder-segment-finds-new-report-from-broadridge-and-pwc-us-300228546.html
SOURCE Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.