ESG Newsletters & Alerts

Proxy Voting Weekly Digest - Week Ended May 10, 2024

May 21, 2024

In a proxy fight with railroad company Norfolk Southern Corporation (NSC), activist investor Ancora Catalyst Institutional managed to win three (out of 13) board seats but fell short of gaining majority control of the board and replacing CEO Alan Shaw – signaling shareholders’ confidence in the company’s current strategic direction. At the same time, the company wasn’t able to convince shareholders of its executive compensation program: with 27% support, its say-on-pay vote failed.

As far as shareholder proposals go, those on governance topics continue to receive high levels of average support (44% as of May 10, 2024, in the Russell 3000, versus 32% during the same time in 2023), while support for environmental and social (E&S) proposals continues to decline (16% thus far in 2024, versus 20% in 2023). Average support for proposals from conservative groups is particularly low with 2.8% thus far in 2024 (versus 6.9% during the same period in 2023). When excluding such proposals, support for E&S proposals averages 21% in 2024 (versus 23% in 2023).