Should You Be Pleased About The CEO Pay At Alkermes plc's (NASDAQ:ALKS)
Richard Pops has been the CEO of Alkermes plc (NASDAQ:ALKS) since 2011. 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. Third, we'll reflect on the total return to shareholders over three years, as a second measure of business performance. This method should give us information to assess how appropriately the company pays the CEO.
See our latest analysis for Alkermes
How Does Richard Pops's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?
At the time of writing, our data says that Alkermes plc has a market cap of US$3.2b, and reported total annual CEO compensation of US$17m for the year to December 2018. While we always look at total compensation first, we note that the salary component is less, at US$1.0m. We further remind readers that the CEO may face performance requirements to receive the non-salary part of the total compensation. We looked at a group of companies with market capitalizations from US$2.0b to US$6.4b, and the median CEO total compensation was US$5.1m.
Thus we can conclude that Richard Pops receives more in total compensation than the median of a group of companies in the same market, and of similar size to Alkermes plc. 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, below, how CEO compensation at Alkermes has changed over time.
Is Alkermes plc Growing?
On average over the last three years, Alkermes plc has grown earnings per share (EPS) by 11% each year (using a line of best fit). Its revenue is up 1.9% over last year.
This demonstrates that the company has been improving recently. A good result. It's nice to see a little revenue growth, as this is consistent with healthy business conditions. Shareholders might be interested in this free visualization of analyst forecasts.
Has Alkermes plc Been A Good Investment?
With a three year total loss of 62%, Alkermes plc would certainly have some dissatisfied shareholders. This suggests it would be unwise for the company to pay the CEO too generously.
In Summary...
We compared total CEO remuneration at Alkermes plc 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.
However we must not forget that the EPS growth has been very strong over three years. Having said that, shareholders may be disappointed with the weak returns over the last three years. One might thus conclude that it would be better if the company waited until growth is reflected in the share price, before increasing CEO compensation. Shareholders may want to check for free if Alkermes insiders are buying or selling shares.
Arguably, business quality is much more important than CEO compensation levels. So check out this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.
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.
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