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Amarnath Gupta is the CEO of Premier Explosives Limited (NSE:PREMEXPLQ). First, this article will compare CEO compensation with compensation at similar sized companies. 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. This process should give us an idea about how appropriately the CEO is paid.

View our latest analysis for Premier Explosives

How Does Amarnath Gupta's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?

Our data indicates that Premier Explosives Limited is worth ₹1.9b, and total annual CEO compensation is ₹21m. (This figure is for the year to March 2018). While this analysis focuses on total compensation, it's worth noting the salary is lower, valued at ₹17m. We took a group of companies with market capitalizations below ₹14b, and calculated the median CEO total compensation to be ₹1.4m.

It would therefore appear that Premier Explosives Limited pays Amarnath Gupta more than the median CEO remuneration at companies of a similar size, in the same market. However, this fact alone doesn't mean the remuneration is too high. We can get a better idea of how generous the pay is by looking at the performance of the underlying business.

You can see a visual representation of the CEO compensation at Premier Explosives, below.

Is Premier Explosives Limited Growing?

On average over the last three years, Premier Explosives Limited has grown earnings per share (EPS) by 3.3% each year (using a line of best fit). It saw its revenue drop -7.9% over the last year.

I would argue that the lack of revenue growth in the last year is less than ideal, but it is good to see EPS growth. These two metric are moving in different directions, so while it's hard to be confident judging performance, we think the stock is worth watching. Shareholders might be interested in this free visualization of analyst forecasts.

Has Premier Explosives Limited Been A Good Investment?

With a three year total loss of 52%, Premier Explosives Limited would certainly have some dissatisfied shareholders. So shareholders would probably think the company shouldn't be too generous with CEO compensation.

In Summary...

We compared the total CEO remuneration paid by Premier Explosives Limited, and compared it to remuneration at a group of similar sized companies. We found that it pays well over the median amount paid in the benchmark group.

Over the last three years, shareholder returns have been downright disappointing, and the underlying business has failed to impress us. Although we'd stop short of calling it inappropriate, we think the CEO compensation is probably more on the generous side of things. So you may want to check if insiders are buying Premier Explosives shares with their own money (free access).

If you want to buy a stock that is better than Premier Explosives, this free list of high return, low debt companies is a great place to look.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.