ISS tells Occidental shareholders not to vote for Chairman Irani
By Claudia Assis, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Energy stocks rose Thursday, with Occidental Petroleum Corp. leading the way after a proxy adviser offered tacit support for Chief Executive Stephen Chazen.
Shares of Occidental OXY +3.43% rose 3.5%.
Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. said shareholders shouldn’t re-elect Executive Chairman Ray Irani and lead director Aziz Syriani, saying they failed to manage the company’s search for a new chief executive.
Occidental announced in February it was looking for a replacement for CEO Chazen, who said he wasn’t looking to leave.
The feud between Irani and Chazen has led to shareholder discontent at Occidental.
ISS also recommended shareholders to vote against Occidental’s executive pay policies. ISS is an adviser to large institutional investors; its recommendations are not binding but thought to be influential.
Other top gainers Thursday included Chevron Corp. CVX +0.76% , with shares up 1.5%. ConocoPhillips COP -0.32% and Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM -0.03% shares also gained, up 0.4% and 0.3%, respectively.
U.S.-listed shares of BP PLC BP +0.51% rose 0.8%.
One of BP’s largest shareholders, Standard Life Investments, asked the company Thursday to reform its executive compensation structure to make sure executive don’t reap the rewards for achieving “unchallenging performance targets,” the institutional shareholder said.
Among the few decliners on Thursday, Marathon Petroleum Corp. MPC -3.58% was off 1.4%. Other refiners were also seeing red, with Phillips 66 PSX -2.33% off 0.8% and Valero Energy Corp. VLO -3.98% down 1.2%.
The SPDR Energy Select Sector XLE +0.10% , an exchange-traded fund focused on energy stocks, rose 0.9%.
Claudia Assis is a San Francisco-based reporter for MarketWatch. Follow her on Twitter @ClaudiaAssisMW.
