Georgeson's/Proxy Insight's "2020 Annual Corporate Governance Review - Part II" (complimentary access upon form completion) includes robust institutional investor voting data for S&P 1500 companies on key shareholder proposals for the 2020 proxy season (July 1, 2019 - June 30, 2020). Notably, notwithstanding overall increased support for environmental and social proposals, the report reveals significant variations in support across investors for particular proposals (e.g., political spending, climate, board and workforce diversity, board leadership), illustrating that positions, priorities, and expectations vis-à-vis portfolio companies differ - in many cases, significantly - by individual investor.
By way of example, this table shows the variations in support across major investors for board and workforce diversity proposals:
As anticipated (at least to some degree) based on its published voting policies/positions, State Street's votes against directors nearly doubled relative to 2019. The commentary and data on pages 76 - 77 of the report explain the bases for reduced support and provide relevant data.
The report also includes S&P 1500 say-on-pay voting results and a summary of M&A activity and activism trends since 2014.
See our report on Part I of the Georgeson/Proxy Insight report and our prior reports: "Investors Vote for Workforce Rights," "Sustainability-Based Proxy Voting: State Street Follows Suit," and "State Street Reports on Proxy Season." This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!