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Matt Zaist became the CEO of William Lyon Homes (NYSE:WLH) in 2015. This analysis aims first to contrast CEO compensation with other companies that have similar market capitalization. After that, we will consider the growth in the business. And finally - as a second measure of performance - we will look at the returns shareholders have received over the last few years. This method should give us information to assess how appropriately the company pays the CEO.

See our latest analysis for William Lyon Homes

How Does Matt Zaist's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?

Our data indicates that William Lyon Homes is worth US$714m, and total annual CEO compensation is US$4.9m. (This is based on the year to December 2018). That's less than last year. While we always look at total compensation first, we note that the salary component is less, at US$941k. When we examined a selection of companies with market caps ranging from US$400m to US$1.6b, we found the median CEO total compensation was US$2.7m.

Thus we can conclude that Matt Zaist receives more in total compensation than the median of a group of companies in the same market, and of similar size to William Lyon Homes. However, this doesn't necessarily mean the pay is too high. We can better assess whether the pay is overly generous by looking into the underlying business performance.

You can see a visual representation of the CEO compensation at William Lyon Homes, below.

Is William Lyon Homes Growing?

On average over the last three years, William Lyon Homes has grown earnings per share (EPS) by 14% each year (using a line of best fit). In the last year, its revenue is up 14%.

This shows that the company has improved itself over the last few years. Good news for shareholders. It's a real positive to see this sort of growth in a single year. That suggests a healthy and growing business. Shareholders might be interested in this free visualization of analyst forecasts.

Has William Lyon Homes Been A Good Investment?

William Lyon Homes has served shareholders reasonably well, with a total return of 20% over three years. But they probably wouldn't be so happy as to think the CEO should be paid more than is normal, for companies around this size.

In Summary...

We compared total CEO remuneration at William Lyon Homes with the amount paid at companies with a similar market capitalization. We found that it pays well over the median amount paid in the benchmark group.

Importantly, though, the company has impressed with its earnings per share growth, over three years. We also think investors are doing ok, over the same time period. While it may be worth researching further, we don't see a problem with the CEO pay, given the good EPS growth. Shareholders may want to check for free if William Lyon Homes insiders are buying or selling shares.

If you want to buy a stock that is better than William Lyon Homes, this free list of high return, low debt companies is a great place to look.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.