By Paolo Laudani
(Reuters) -There have been numerous changes among CEOs in the last 18 months, and Walmart’s announcement that Chief Executive Doug McMillon will retire in January is only the latest.
Those companies’ performances have varied, but Walmart’s returns have been among the strongest.
A Reuters analysis of companies that have changed their leadership in the past year-and-a-half, including Nestle and Starbucks, show which ones have performed best under their CEOs’ tenure.
In annualized total terms, the company that delivered the best returns to its shareholders is Pandora.
Under the leadership of Alexander Lacik, at the helm since February 2019, the Danish jewelry brand posted annualized total returns of 17%, calculated from the day before the CEO took up office to Nov. 14, 2025.
In September, the firm announced Lacik would retire next March and be succeeded by marketing chief Berta de Pablos-Barbier.
Walmart is second on the list. Its annualized total return came to 15% over the decade since January 2014 with McMillon in charge.
The CEO, who will be replaced by U.S. division chief CEO John Furner, joined in January 2014.
A laggard in this CEO scorecard is German sportswear brand Puma, which under Arne Freundt saw a negative annualized total return of 36.6%. He was replaced in April by former Adidas sales chief Arthur Hoeld.
Looking at total return, French luxury group Kering takes the crown as it delivered a whopping 520% total return to its shareholders in the past 20 years with Francois-Henri Pinault at the company’s top position between March 2005 and September of this year.
Walmart comes second in this metric at 419%, while drinks group Diageo, Nike and KitKat maker Nestle were among the worst performers.
(Reporting by Paolo Laudani in Gdansk; Editing by David Gaffen and Nick Zieminski)
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