How Much Is Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (NYSE:BNED) Paying Its CEO?

Mike Huseby has been the CEO of Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (NYSE:BNED) since 2017, and this article will examine the executive's compensation with respect to the overall performance of the company. This analysis will also assess whether Barnes & Noble Education pays its CEO appropriately, considering recent earnings growth and total shareholder returns.

See our latest analysis for Barnes & Noble Education

How Does Total Compensation For Mike Huseby Compare With Other Companies In The Industry?

At the time of writing, our data shows that Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. has a market capitalization of US$170m, and reported total annual CEO compensation of US$3.4m for the year to May 2020. We note that's a decrease of 25% compared to last year. While this analysis focuses on total compensation, it's worth acknowledging that the salary portion is lower, valued at US$1.1m.

For comparison, other companies in the same industry with market capitalizations ranging between US$100m and US$400m had a median total CEO compensation of US$1.1m. Hence, we can conclude that Mike Huseby is remunerated higher than the industry median. Moreover, Mike Huseby also holds US$2.0m worth of Barnes & Noble Education stock directly under their own name.

Talking in terms of the industry, salary represented approximately 20% of total compensation out of all the companies we analyzed, while other remuneration made up 80% of the pie. Barnes & Noble Education is paying a higher share of its remuneration through a salary in comparison to the overall industry. If non-salary compensation dominates total pay, it's an indicator that the executive's salary is tied to company performance.

A Look at Barnes & Noble Education, Inc.'s Growth Numbers

Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. has seen its earnings per share (EPS) increase by 37% a year over the past three years. In the last year, its revenue is down 14%.

Shareholders would be glad to know that the company has improved itself over the last few years. While it would be good to see revenue growth, profits matter more in the end. Moving away from current form for a second, it could be important to check this free visual depiction of what analysts expect for the future.

Has Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. Been A Good Investment?

Given the total shareholder loss of 54% over three years, many shareholders in Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. are probably rather dissatisfied, to say the least. So shareholders would probably want the company to be lessto generous with CEO compensation.

To Conclude...

As we touched on above, Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. is currently paying its CEO higher than the median pay for CEOs of companies belonging to the same industry and with similar market capitalizations. But the company has impressed with its EPS growth, but we cannot say the same about the uninspiring shareholder returns (over the last three years). Although we don't think the CEO pay is too high, considering negative investor returns, it is more generous than modest.

We can learn a lot about a company by studying its CEO compensation trends, along with looking at other aspects of the business. We did our research and identified 4 warning signs (and 1 which is significant) in Barnes & Noble Education we think you should know about.

Switching gears from Barnes & Noble Education, if you're hunting for a pristine balance sheet and premium returns, this free list of high return, low debt companies is a great place to look.

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. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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