Executive compensation was always a hot-button issue. Distilled nicely in a “Dilbert” strip in which Carol, the bitter secretary, asks about the difference between the CEO’s compensation and her own to illustrate her total lack of motivation. It’s been an issue for decades. Now, Bitcoin stock Marathon Digital Holdings (NASDAQ:MARA) is finding out how hot that button is itself, as it lost over 6% in Monday afternoon’s trading after unveiling new executive compensation packages.
Basically, Marathon approved compensation schemes for a big part of the C-suite, including a slate of Long-Term Incentive Program (LTIP) grants that were based mainly on performance metrics for 2023. The LTIP grants take three years to vest and are built around the average metrics of other companies in the Bitcoin (BTC-USD) sector. Based on word from the 8-K report filed by Marathon, the LTIP grants in question are going to be quite generous.
The smallest one listed comes out at just over $3 million, and the largest is better than $22 million. Added together, the top five such LTIP grants come out to be over $45 million. Indeed, just looking at CEO Fred Thiel is almost preposterous; his base salary is $800,000, but his LTIP grant will come out to $22.4 million, more than 20 times his salary by itself.
Is MARA a Good Stock to Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on MARA stock based on two Buys, two Holds, and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 142.16% rally in its share price over the past year, the average MARA price target of $21.67 per share implies 27.4% upside potential.
