2024 proxy season review
Highlights from the 2024 proxy season Across both retail and institutional segments of shareholders, there was an increase in voting support for corporate directors and Say-on-Pay, along with a continued decrease in support for Environmental and Social proposals. Increased support for directors and pay is consistent with rising market valuations since the 2023 proxy season. […]
Chuck Callan is a Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Mike Donowitz is a Vice President Regulatory Affairs at Broadridge Financial Solutions. This post is based on their Broadridge memorandum.
Highlights from the 2024 proxy season
Across both retail and institutional segments of shareholders, there was an increase in voting support for corporate directors and Say-on-Pay, along with a continued decrease in support for Environmental and Social proposals. Increased support for directors and pay is consistent with rising market valuations since the 2023 proxy season.
The cooling shareholder support for “E” and “S” proposals continues a downward annual trend since the highwater support mark in the 2021 proxy season. Some governance observers have suggested that the decline is due at least in part to companies providing more disclosure on their environmental policies and social responsibilities as well as the rise in the number of anti-ESG proposals, which have garnered little support to date.
The percentage of shares held by retail investors, at 31.7% of the total, is the highest level in 9 years, underscoring the importance of this segment to directors and managers. As a group, they voted 29.8% of the shares they own, a slight uptick over the prior two proxy seasons.
