ROCKVILLE, MD (May 4, 2017) – The peak of the U.S. corporate annual meeting season will this year fall on Wednesday May 18, according to ISS Analytics, the data and analytics arm of Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS).
More than 43 percent of all Russell 3000 companies will hold their annual meetings in May, including 246 members of the S&P 500, according to a May 1 analysis of proxy filings. Peak meeting day for 2017 will be May 18. ISS is tracking 126 members of the Russell 3000 slated to hold shareholders meetings that day, with household names including: Altria Group (QualityScore of 4); Anthem (8); AvalonBay Communities (9); Cheniere Energy (5); Discovery Communications (10); Intel Corporation (2); KeyCorp (2); Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (10); The Home Depot (1); and Vornado Realty Trust (9). The next busiest day will fall on May 25 with 114 Russell 3000 companies slated to hold their annual meetings, followed by May 17 when 105 firms will convene their shareholders. Collectively, one-quarter of all U.S. annual meetings slated for May will be spread across just these three days.
“Early U.S. season trends include an increased focus on ensuring governance structures at newly-IPO companies are in line with shareholders’ interests, ballot items on ‘say-on-pay’ frequency reaffirming shareholders’ focus on having annual votes on this issue, and early season traction on some environmental and social proposals, including strong minority support for two degree climate change proposals at Ameren, Marathon Petroleum, and the AES Corporation,” said John Roe, Head of ISS Analytics. “Say-on-pay vote results across the Russell 3,000 thus far in 2017 show support of 96.6 percent, which is slightly higher compared with the 96.0 percent evidenced during the same period in 2016.”
May is also the peak month for annual meetings in Canada, with 150 members of the S&P/TSX Composite, including 34 TSX60 companies, holding their meetings this month. Among S&P/TSX Composite firms, peak meeting day is today, Thursday May 4, when 29 firms (including nine TSX60 companies) are convening their annual meetings. Among companies holding their annual meeting that day are: Canadian Natural Resources (QualityScore of 4), Manulife Financial Corporation (3), Yamana Gold (3), Loblaw Companies Limited (5), ARC Resources Limited (2), and Fortis Inc. (3).
Including all Canadian firms tracked by ISS with May meetings, the busiest meeting date shifts back to May 11. On that date, which is also the Composite’s second most selected date, 26 S&P/TSX Composite member company meetings will be held, along with 34 meetings held by smaller firms. The third most frequent date selected by larger Canadian firms is May 9, with 15 Composite members and 32 smaller firms holding their meetings. Meetings spread over these three days in May represent more than 46 percent of all Canadian annual meetings tracked by ISS for May 2017.
“So far in 2017, we have seen say-on-pay resolutions fail to pass at two Canadian companies compared with three in the U.S. across a much broader universe of companies,” said Roe.
Credentialed journalists can access a full list of companies scheduled to meet on the aforementioned dates by contacting ISS.
