A few weeks ago, I blogged some preseason observations from ISS-Corporate – and now we have this report from Glass Lewis with a bunch of preseason notes. Here’s an excerpt:
“Proposal and Exclusion Request Volumes
Key Takeaway #1: The number of shareholder proposals going to a vote in January and February is down from last year, while the number of exclusion notices filed is roughly the same.
Before looking at the data, it’s important to note that this represents a tiny sample size, making up less than 1% of the 4000+ U.S. meetings that Glass Lewis will cover this proxy season. While certain companies tend to attract shareholder proposals year after year, there’s always fluctuation.
Figure 1. Number of Shareholder Proposals and Exclusion Notices at January and February Shareholder Meetings
Source: Glass Lewis Research with no-action requests compiled from SEC.2 Note: Data is for proposals and notices relating to shareholder meetings held Jan. 1 – Feb. 28. Excludes withdrawn exclusion notices, and (for 2026 data) notices filed prior to November 17, 2025.
While the decline in the number of shareholder proposals is notable, it may not be directly related to the shift in how the SEC approaches exclusions. Among the 11 companies with a January or February meeting date that had a shareholder proposal on their ballot in 2025 but not in 2026, only one has filed to exclude a proposal from this year’s meeting.
Rather than representing a new phenomenon, the decline in the number of shareholder proposals going to a vote aligns with an ongoing, multi-year trend driven by other factors3 — including a prior change in SEC guidance that narrowed the scope for environmental and social proposals, growing pushback on ESG, and the widespread success of prior shareholder proposals in addressing investor concerns on many of the topics that have been the subject of recent activism.
Let’s take a closer look at the four companies that saw the most shareholder proposals in January and February of last year. Overall, this group has three fewer shareholder proposals on their agendas in 2026 (down from 14 to 11), and is only excluding one proposal (down from five last year).
- Apple is down from four shareholder proposals in 2025 to one in 2026, and its use of the no-action mechanism is down as well: they excluded three proposals last year, and one this year.
- Deere is down from five shareholder proposals to three, with zero exclusion notices after filing two last year.
- Tyson Foods is up from one shareholder proposal to three, and did not file exclusion notices in either year.
- Visa has had four shareholder proposals on its ballot in each year, and did not file exclusion notices in either year.”
