This edition of ProxyPulseTM provides insights into corporate governance and shareholder voting developments ahead of the 2019 proxy season. It also includes data on shareholder voting trends from 1,024 annual meetings held during the "mini-season" between July 1 and December 31, 2018. What's different about the mini-season? Fewer companies hold meetings during the mini-season, and those that do tend to be smaller. Twenty percent of all public company annual meetings took place from July 1 to December 31, 2018.1
Key Takeaways
Year over year (2018 vs. 2017 mini-seasons), there was no change in the percentage of shares owned by institutional (65%) and retail shareholders (35%).
Retail voting participation was up slightly (29%) over the same period in 2017 (27%).
On average, retail shareholders cast 90% of their voted shares in favor of directors, down from 92% in the prior year.
Overall, directors were supported by 89% of the voted shares, down 1% from 90% in 2017.
On average, retail shareholders cast 82% of their voted shares in favor of say-on-pay proposals, down from 83% the prior year.
Overall support for shareholder proposals rose to 43%, on average, from 36% during the same period in the prior year.
1 ProxyPulseTM data is based on Broadridge's processing of shares held in street name.
&
