The Manhattan Institute’s Proxy Monitor Tracks Proxy Season Outcomes

A small group of investors whose agendas misalign with profit drive 2019 proxy process

NEW YORK, NY – The Manhattan Institute’s Proxy Monitor has updated its comprehensive database for the 2019 proxy season, including outside shareholder proposals for all Fortune 250 companies. Spearheaded by senior fellow and legal policy director James R. Copland, Proxy Monitor is a powerful resource, tracking shareholder voting results in real time and advancing transparency in an environment of increasing shareholder activism.

So far this season, more than 75 percent of America’s Fortune 250 companies have held their annual meetings, with more scheduled throughout June. These 216 companies face 231 shareholder proposals on their proxy ballots. Of this year’s shareholder proposals:

• 45 percent have been introduced by groups with express social, policy, or religious agendas beyond shareholder wealth maximization;
• 39 percent have been sponsored by the “Chevedden group” corporate gadflies and their family members;
• 13 percent have been introduced by public employee or labor union pension funds; and
• Just 3 percent have been sponsored by individual investors outside the Chevedden group.

Each of the 2019 season proposals are available in sortable, searchable form in the Proxy Monitor database, as well as all proposals for the largest publicly traded American companies from the years 2006 through 2017 (with updates to the 2018 season coming soon). Users can search by year, company, industry, proponent, proponent type, and proposal type. Results include each of the search parameters in addition to proposal titles, vote totals, and basic voting rules.

Click here to visit Proxy Monitor.