March 30, 2006
March 30, 2006
Ms. Nancy Morris
Secretary
U.S. Securities Exchange Commission
100 F Street N.E.
Washington, DC 20549-0213
Ms. Morris Chairman Cox:
Eliminating the performance graph benefits no one except companies that do not wish to display poor performance. Those companies are the ones that have a great responsibility to their shareholders to be honest and not try to sugar-coat the reality of what is happening to their shareholder's money.
The Graph can help investors to see if the executives are being paid fairly, as well. The rules for it could be a bit more detailed and the disclosure around it could be changed to benefit the shareholders in new ways.
It should remain in the Proxy for the sake of all investors to compare and possibly find new companies to invest in. The performance graph is the easiest place to find valuable information from a shareholder standpoint, and I can not understand why you would eliminate it and not put anything in its place. Internet information is often times completely wrong, and to expect public companies to not abuse the privilege and find information that is beneficial to them is crazy.
It seems to me that without the requirement, companies could compare themselves to anybody, just in an effort to put their company in a more favorable light. That must be regulated out of fairness to shareholders.
I would actually like to see one in each 10-Q as my stock performs throughout the year.
Why should I (the shareholder) have to find my own information on the internet? And how am I possibly going to know what companies to compare? You assume that the average investor knows how much of a difference dividends can make, and that is a poor assumption.
Thank you for your time,
Tonya W. Wheby
Executive Assistant