Since our last update, shareholder proposals to increase disclosure and ban political expenditures in public companies have continued the trend of not coming anywhere close to passing. The list of companies whose shareholders have voted down the proposals now include (as reported by ProxyMonitor.org):
- Goldman Sachs (Disclosure 0%)
- Amazon (Disclosure 0%)
- The Travelers Companies (Disclosure 0%)
- JP Morgan Chase (Disclosure 8.2%)
- Allstate (Disclosure 7.72%)
- Coventry Health Care (Disclosure 0%)
- Union Pacific (Disclosure 27.96%)
- Hess (Disclosure 0%)
- Altria (Disclosure 21.83%)
- WellPoint (Disclosure 13.4%)
- Northrop Grumman (Disclosure 7.8%)
- Anadarko Petroleum (Disclosure 20.31%)
- ConocoPhillips (Disclosure 23.14%)
- 3M (Prohibit Spending 5.43%)
As the Wall Street Journal’s put it in an editorial about J.P. Morgan (Dimon Undaunted):
“…shareholders value returns on their investment more than they do making political statements.”
The editorial continues:
“The bank’s shareholders also showed wisdom in giving only 8.2% support to a resolution demanding the disclosure of details of its spending on lobbying and “grassroots lobbying communication.” This is another union-liberal hobby-horse, a step toward coercing corporations to abandon their First Amendment right to petition the government. These activists claim to speak for all investors, but the paltry vote shows that most shareholders realize such unilateral political disarmament would be bad for the business.”
Activist investors don’t care about shareholder value. They care about embarrassing companies that don’t agree support their personal political views.
Thankfully, the vast majority of investors care about shareholder value. As this proxy season continues to demonstrate, shareholders overwhelmingly agree that publishing additional disclosure information, and suffering through public spectacles from media-hungry activists trying to force companies to support their political views, just isn’t necessary.
