Wall Street Journal (May 4)
“Companies will need to jump through more hoops to buy back their stock.” A new rule adopted by the SEC will require “more disclosure from public companies about share repurchases starting in the fourth quarter,” including daily data on buybacks, whether directors or officers sold shares within four days of a buyback, and the rationale for the buyback. The SEC believes this will “make it easier for analysts to compare the timing of buybacks and insider trades, or to identify buybacks designed to boost executive compensation or earnings per share.”
Tags: Analysts, Buybacks, Directors, Disclosure, EPS, Executive compensation, Hoops, Insider trades, Officers, Public companies, Q4, Rationale, SEC, Share repurchases, Stock, Timing
New York Times (May 2)
“Nearly two years after the passage of Dodd Frank, say-on-pay is slowly emboldening investors to question executive pay, most prominently this year at Citigroup, where shareholders recently rejected a $15 million pay package for the bank’s chief executive, Vikram Pandit.” But another Dodd Frank provision has yet to be introduced. The pay-gap provision would require companies to report CEO compensation as a ratio of the company’s median pay. “The delay is disturbing.” The SEC needs to implement this requirement promptly. “The pay-gap ratio is crucial to determining whether executive compensation is excessive and to judging the effect of pay gaps on company performance and the broader economy.”
