This edition of ProxyPulseTM provides insights into key corporate governance and shareholder voting trends during the 2018 proxy season. It covers the results of 4,090 public company annual meetings held between January 1 and June 30, 2018. ProxyPulse data is based on Broadridge's processing of shares held in street name.
Key Takeaways
Institutional ownership of public company shares declined slightly to 70% (from 71% in 2017). Retail ownership increased to 30% this season (from 29% in 2017).
Institutional shareholder voting participation remained high at 91%. Retail shareholder participation declined slightly to 28% this season (from 29% in 2017).
Shareholder support for say-on-pay proposals at companies where the CEO pay ratio was disclosed was the same, on average, as it was at companies that were not required to disclose the pay ratio.
Institutional shareholder support for social and environmental proposals increased over the past five years (from 19% in 2014 to 29% in 2018).
Institutional and retail support of corporate political spending proposals has increased notably over a five year period (from 20% overall in 2014 to 28% this season).
The number of proxy access shareholder proposals declined over the last four years (from 81 in 2015 to 34 in 2018).
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