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How Should Investors React To Cimpress N.V.’s (NASDAQ:CMPR) CEO Pay?

In 1995 Robert Keane was appointed CEO of Cimpress N.V. (NASDAQ:CMPR). First, this article will compare CEO compensation with compensation at similar sized companies. Then we’ll look at a snap shot of the business growth. Third, we’ll reflect on the total return to shareholders over three years, as a second measure of business performance. This process should give us an idea about how appropriately the CEO is paid.

View our latest analysis for Cimpress

How Does Robert Keane’s Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?

At the time of writing our data says that Cimpress N.V. has a market cap of US$3.5b, and is paying total annual CEO compensation of US$8.5m. (This figure is for the year to 2018). That’s actually a decrease on the year before. We think total compensation is more important but we note that the CEO salary is lower, at US$1.7m. When we examined a selection of companies with market caps ranging from US$2.0b to US$6.4b, we found the median CEO compensation was US$5.1m.

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Thus we can conclude that Robert Keane receives more in total compensation than the median of a group of companies in the same market, and of similar size to Cimpress N.V.. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean the pay is too high. We can get a better idea of how generous the pay is by looking at the performance of the underlying business.

The graphic below shows how CEO compensation at Cimpress has changed from year to year.

NasdaqGS:CMPR CEO Compensation December 11th 18
NasdaqGS:CMPR CEO Compensation December 11th 18

Is Cimpress N.V. Growing?

On average over the last three years, Cimpress N.V. has shrunk earnings per share by 61% each year. Its revenue is up 16% over last year.

Sadly for shareholders, earnings per share are actually down, over three years. And while it’s good to see some good revenue growth recently, the growth isn’t really fast enough for me to put aside my concerns around earnings. So given this relatively weak performance, shareholders would probably not want to see high compensation for the CEO.

You might want to check this free visual report on analyst forecasts for future earnings.

Has Cimpress N.V. Been A Good Investment?

I think that the total shareholder return of 33%, over three years, would leave most Cimpress N.V. shareholders smiling. As a result, some may believe the CEO should be paid more than is normal for companies of similar size.

In Summary…

We compared total CEO remuneration at Cimpress N.V. with the amount paid at companies with a similar market capitalization. As discussed above, we discovered that the company pays more than the median of that group.

Neither earnings per share nor revenue have been growing sufficiently fast to impress us, over the last three years.

On the other hand, returns have been good, so the company is doing something right. So on this analysis we’d stop short of criticizing the level of CEO compensation. Shareholders may want to check for free if Cimpress insiders are buying or selling shares.

Or you might prefer this data-rich interactive visualization of historic revenue and earnings.

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.

The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.