Ten years or so ago, when most public companies used the calendar-year as their fiscal year, virtually 100% of shareholder meetings were over by April 31st.
How things have changed, as the chart below, from ISS Analytics dramatically reveals; today, only 22% of meetings are over and done by the end of April….with 31% of the total meetings now moved into May…and another 17% in June. The big shift, we think, is mainly due to the huge amount of required disclosures these days, which simply can’t be done in a month after the close of the first-quarter. But then, as the chart shows, about 5% of all meetings began to take place in summery July through wintery November, a trend we think that various proxy advisors fostered as a way to “get out of the crowd” - and probably, to better spread their own business around throughout the year. Most astonishingly to us, as long-term meeting-goers, 6% of all meetings now take place in December - which, historically, and from a “social-calendar perspective” were totally unthinkable ten years ago.
Also back in the Y-2Ks, Monday and Friday meetings were absolutely unheard of - to assure a peaceful weekend for corporate directors. And “never on Wednesdays” was a mostly unbroken rule - because these were the most convenient travel days for directors. Recently however, Mondays and Fridays have been steadily growing in popularity, despite the Sunday and late-night Friday travel-time that is so often involved - mainly we think, because shareholders will be less likely to attend…which, we feel sure, largely accounts for the growing popularity of December meetings too.
One last big trend, thanks to today’s big M&A activity, a lot of companies are holding two shareholder meetings in the same year…and then, none the next year for the merged entity.
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