William McIlroy became the CEO of Creightons Plc (LON:CRL) in 2003. This analysis aims first to contrast CEO compensation with other companies that have similar market capitalization. After that, we will consider the growth in the business. And finally – as a second measure of performance – we will look at the returns shareholders have received over the last few years. The aim of all this is to consider the appropriateness of CEO pay levels.

Check out our latest analysis for Creightons

How Does William McIlroy’s Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?

According to our data, Creightons Plc has a market capitalization of UK£17m, and pays its CEO total annual compensation worth UK£85k. We note that’s an increase of 9.0% above last year. We took a group of companies with market capitalizations below UK£156m, and calculated the median CEO compensation to be UK£243k.

Most shareholders would consider it a positive that William McIlroy takes less compensation than the CEOs of most similar size companies, leaving more for shareholders. However, before we heap on the praise, we should delve deeper to understand business performance.

You can see, below, how CEO compensation at Creightons has changed over time.

Is Creightons Plc Growing?

On average over the last three years, Creightons Plc has grown earnings per share (EPS) by 26% each year. It achieved revenue growth of 14% over the last year.

Overall this is a positive result for shareholders, showing that the company has improved in recent years. It’s a real positive to see this sort of growth in a single year. That suggests a healthy and growing business.

We don’t have analyst forecasts, but you might want to assess this data-rich visualization of earnings, revenue and cash flow.

Has Creightons Plc Been A Good Investment?

Boasting a total shareholder return of 255% over three years, Creightons Plc has done well by shareholders. This strong performance might mean some shareholders don’t mind if the CEO is paid more than is normal for a company of its size.

In Summary…

Creightons Plc is currently paying its CEO below what is normal for companies of its size. Since the business is growing, many would argue this suggest the pay is modest. The strong history of shareholder returns might even have some thinking that William McIlroy deserves a raise!

It is relatively rare to see a modestly paid CEO when performance is so impressive. The cherry on top would be if company insiders are buying shares with their own money.

Or you might prefer examine intently this intuitive graph showing past earnings and revenue.

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.

The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.