Editor’s note: Data on shareholder votes for America's 250 largest public companies during the 2019 proxy season are available on the publicly available (and fully sortable) Proxy Monitor database.
Voting analysis by James R. Copland:
Small gadfly investor John Chevedden remains the most active sponsor of shareholder proposals at America’s largest publicly traded companies. As shown in the early May voting results, Chevedden sponsored a shareholder proposal at six of the 11 large companies facing a proposals in the first week of May. To date, with more than 80% of large companies scheduled to hold annual meetings by the end of June, Mr. Chevedden has sponsored more than a quarter of all shareholder proposals.
Four of Mr. Chevedden’s early May proposals sought shareholder rights to act outside of annual meetings by written consent; one of these, at Capitol One, received majority support from voting shareholders (56.9%). Mr. Chevedden’s other early May proposals sought to separate by rule corporate chairman and chief executive officer roles, an idea also pushed in shareholder proposals sponsored by labor union interests and the social advocate SumofUs; more than 62% of shareholders rejected these proposals at each company.
Aside from Mr. Chevedden’s written consent proposal, the early May shareholder proposal to receive the highest level of shareholder backing was one introduced at Fluor, by the New York State Common Retirement Fund, pushing the company to compile a report on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This proposal got the support of almost 46% of shareholders. Although social issue proposals remain unlikely to win over a majority of shareholders, support for such proposals—involving climate change and greenhouse gases—has trended up in recent years. Another such proposal, sponsored at Duke Energy by the social investing umbrella organization As You Sow, urged the company to prepare a report on mitigating the climate impacts of coal use; it received almost 41% shareholder support.
PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP)
5/1/19 Annual Meeting
Abstentions are not included
Voting Results:
- Item 3 - Say on Pay (Management proposal) – 93.35% Voting in Favor
- Item 5 – Independent Board Chair (SumofUs) – 25.40% Voting in Favor
- Item 6 – Report on Pesticide Use in Supply Chain (As You Sow) – 10.75% Voting in Favor
General Dynamics Corp. (GD)
5/1/19 Annual Meeting
Abstentions are included
Voting Results:
- Item 3 - Say on Pay (Management proposal) – 96.16% Voting in Favor
- Item 5 - Independent Board Chair (John Chevedden) – 23.38% Voting in Favor
Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (ADM)
5/1/19 Annual Meeting
Abstentions are included
Voting Results:
- Item 3 - Say on Pay (Management proposal) – 86.13% Voting in Favor
Philip Morris International Inc. (PM)
5/1/19 Annual Meeting
Abstentions are not included
Voting Results:
- Item 2 - Say on Pay (Management proposal) – 95.93% Voting in Favor
Fluor Corporation (FLR)
5/2/19 Annual Meeting
Abstentions are included
Voting Results:
- Item 2 - Say on Pay (Management proposal) – 88.21% Voting in Favor
- Item 4 – Goals for Reduction of Greenhouse Gas (NYS Common Retirement Fund) – 45.93% Voting in Favor
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ)
5/2/19 Annual Meeting
Abstentions are not included
Voting Results:
- Item 3 - Say on Pay (Management proposal) – 90.37% Voting in Favor
- Item 4 – Prohibit Paying Above-Market Returns on NonQual Exec Savings Plans (Assoc. of BellTel Retirees) – 27.03% Voting in Favor
- Item 5 – Independent Board Chair (AFL-CIO) –34.97% Voting in Favor
- Item 6 – Report on Online Child Sexual Exploitation (Catholic United Investment Trust) – 33.90% Voting in Favor
- Item 7 – Cyber Security and Data Privacy as Exec Comp Performance Measures (Trillium Asset Mgmt.) – 12.45% Voting in Favor
- Item 8 – Shareholder Ratification of Golden Parachutes (Jack K. and Ilene Cohen) – 36.92% Voting in Favor
Tenet Healthcare Corporation (THC)
5/2/19 Annual Meeting
Abstentions are not included
Voting Results:
- Item 3 - Say on Pay (Management proposal) – 91.50% Voting in Favor
Capital One Financial Corporation (COF)
5/2/19 Annual Meeting
Abstentions are not included
Voting Results:
- Item 3 - Say on Pay (Management proposal) – 95.13% Voting in Favor
- Item 5 – Right to Act by Written Consent (John Chevedden) – 56.86% Voting in Favor
Duke Energy Corporation (DUK)
5/2/19 Annual Meeting
Abstentions are included
Voting Results:
- Item 3 - Say on Pay (Management proposal) – 91.87% Voting in Favor
- Item 4 - Report on Political Spending (NYS Common Retirement Fund) – 35.29% Voting in Favor
- Item 5 – Report on Lobbying (Mercy Invest. Services & co-filer) – 36.21% Voting in Favor
- Item 6 – Report on Mitigating Health & Climate Impacts of Coal Use (As You Sow & co-filer) – 40.88% Voting in Favor
- Item 7 – Report on Cost/Benefit of Voluntary Environmental Activities (Steven Milloy) – 4.27% Voting in Favor
Kimberly-Clark Corporation (KMB)
5/2/19 Annual Meeting
Abstentions are included
Voting Results:
- Item 3 - Say on Pay (Management proposal) – 95.31% Voting in Favor
Huntsman Corporation (HUN)
5/2/19 Annual Meeting
Abstentions are included
Voting Results:
- Item 2 - Say on Pay (Management proposal) – 72.06% Voting in Favor
- Item 4 – Right to Act by Written Consent (John Chevedden) – 40.89% Voting in Favor
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS)
5/2/19 Annual Meeting
Abstentions are included
Voting Results:
- Item 2 - Say on Pay (Management proposal) – 90.72% Voting in Favor
- Item 4 - Right to Act by Written Consent (John Chevedden) – 39.44% Voting in Favor
Ecolab Inc. (ECL)
5/2/19 Annual Meeting
Abstentions are included
Voting Results:
- Item 3 - Say on Pay (Management proposal) – 91.54% Voting in Favor
- Item 4 – Independent Board Chair (John Chevedden) – 21.22% Voting in Favor
CSX Corporation (CSX)
5/3/19 Annual Meeting
Abstentions are not included
Voting Results:
- Item 3 - Say on Pay (Management proposal) – 93.57% Voting in Favor
Entergy Corporation (ETR)
5/3/19 Annual Meeting
Abstentions are included
Voting Results:
- Item 3 - Say on Pay (Management proposal) – 94.81% Voting in Favor
Illinois Tool Works Inc. (ITW)
5/3/19 Annual Meeting
Abstentions are included
Voting Results:
- Item 3 - Say on Pay (Management proposal) – 95.43% Voting in Favor
- Item 4 - Right to Act by Written Consent (John Chevedden ) – 33.28% Voting in Favor
- Item 5 - Adopt Company-Wide Greenhouse Gas Emissions Targets (Trillium Asset Mgmt. & co-filers) – 21.09% Voting in Favor
AbbVie Inc. (ABBV)
5/3/19 Annual Meeting
Abstentions are included
Voting Results:
- Item 3 - Say on Pay (Management proposal) – 91.37% Voting in Favor
- Item 5 - Report on Lobbying (Zevin Asset Mgmt.) – 24.71% Voting in Favor
- Item 6 – Integrating Drug Pricing Risk into Exec. Comp. Policies (United Church Funds & co-filers) – 21.59% Voting in Favor
- Item 7 – Independent Board Chair (The Employees' Retirement System of Rhode Island & co-filer) – 37.27% Voting in Favor
Visit ProxyMonitor.org to see the 2019 Proxy Scorecard
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James R. Copland is a senior fellow and director of legal policy at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here.