Firm backs Elaine Wynn on director Wynn Resorts
Shareholder adviser tells investors to withhold vote on Hagenbuch
In a blow to the Wynn Resorts Ltd. board, a prominent shareholder advisory firm recommended investors withhold their vote from re-electing director John J. Hagenbuch at this month’s annual meeting.
Wynn Resorts had called on shareholders Wednesday to re-elect Hagenbuch, in response to an attempt by the company’s largest shareholder, Elaine Wynn, to push him out.
Advisory firm Glass Lewis sided with Elaine Wynn on Thursday night.
“We are ultimately inclined to conclude there may be greater value in effectively objecting to Mr. Hagenbuch’s nomination, which should be considered against his questionable role on the special committee reviewing accusations against Mr. Wynn and his shared culpability for years of misaligned compensation practices that Glass Lewis continues to believe are problematic,” the advisory firm said.
The Wynn board has come under intense scrutiny fol
WYNN will hold its annual shareholders meeting on
to re-elect three board members. The Wynn board has 11 members.
ing paychecks has bolstered demand for housing, even though fewer properties are being listed for sale. Consumer confidence has improved over the past year. And more people are shopping, with retail sales having picked up in March after three monthly declines.
Manufacturers added 24,000 workers last month, a sign that possible tariffs on steel, aluminum and Chinese goods haven’t altered hiring plans at most U.S. factories. Restaurants and hotels hired a net 18,000. The health care and social assistance sector added 29,300 jobs and the construction industry 17,000.
The monthly jobs reports have yet to show a consistent surge in average annual wage growth. Even so, workers in the private sector during the first three months of 2018 enjoyed their sharpest average income growth in 11 years, the Labor Department said last week in a separate report on compensation.
That pay growth suggests that some of the momentum from the slow but steady recovery from the 2008 financial crisis is spreading to more people after it had disproportionately benefited the nation’s wealthiest areas and highest earners.
With qualified job applicants harder to find in many industries, employers have become less and less likely to shed employees. The four-week moving average for people applying for first-time unemployment benefits has reached its lowest level since 1973.
The trend reflects a decline in mass layoffs. Many companies expect the economy to keep expanding, especially after a dose of stimulus from tax cuts signed into law by Trump that have also increased the federal budget deficit.
Inflation has shown signs of accelerating slightly, eroding some of the potential wage growth. Consumer prices rose at a year-overyear pace of 2.4 percent in March, the sharpest annual increase in 12 months. The Federal Reserve has an annual inflation target of 2 percent, and investors expect the Fed to raise rates at least twice more this year, after an earlier rate hike in March, to keep inflation from climbing too far above that target.
The home market, a critical component of the U.S. economy, has been a beneficiary of the steady job growth. The National Association of Realtors said that homes sold at a solid annual pace of 5.6 million in March, even though the number of houses for sale has plunged. As a result, average home prices are rising at more than twice the pace of wages.