Welcome to the 2020 annual meeting of Broadridge Financial Solutions. I would now like to introduce the 1st presenter Rich Daley, Executive Chairman of Broadridge Mr. Daley.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. I'm Rich Daley, Executive Chairman of Broadridge. I'd like to welcome you all to Broadridge's 2020 annual meeting. We are delighted You can join us this morning and participate in this meeting.
This is Broadridge's 12th completely virtual meeting of stockholders. A virtual meeting solution permits validated shareholders to vote and ask questions during the meeting. Virtual shareholder meetings have increased the ability of shareholders to attend meetings from home wherever they choose to be. This is particularly important this year, with the pandemic, preventing in person meetings from a This year, Broadridge's virtual shareholder meeting solution will enable close to 2000 company hold our annual meeting virtually. I'd now like to introduce our slate of 10 director nominees, who are all in attendance at this meeting.
Joining me on the video are our CEO and board member, Tim Gokey, our lead independent director, Ashburn, the Chair of our Audit Committee, Ann Carter. The chair of our compensation committee, Helen Weber, and the chair of our governance and nominating committee, Bob The other 4 director nominees are joining the media via audio. They are. Com Perner, Mora Marcus, Brett Kelleher, and Amit Zaver. I'd also like to introduce the partner representatives from our independent audit firm waiting tootch or joining us via audio.
Dune Nicholas and Marty McElk. Our General Counsel, Adam Amstered Dam, now an independent Inspector of Election, Tom Tai are also joining the meeting on the phone. I'll now turn the meeting over to our corporate secretary Maria Allen to conduct business aspects for you.
Thank you, Rich. This meeting is held pursuant to a notice stated October 6th to 2020. On or about October 6th, each stock holds up record as of the close of business on September 24th, was sent either a notification of Internet availability of proxy materials or the proxy materials themselves. All documents concerning notice of the meeting will be filed with the records of the meeting, and the company has appointed Pompey as the Inspector of Election. I've been informed that there are 93 attendees at this meeting today.
Approximately 89% for outstanding shares were present by proxy at this meeting. Accordingly, I certify that quorum office. All Broadridge stockholders entitled to vote at this meeting have the ability to do so online during the meeting until I as the polls. Broadridge Stockholders also have the ability to submit questions either online or by phone by dialing 1-877-328-2502. And providing the control number that will include it with your notice.
I will be closing the polls after I review the proposal So if you're a stockholder entitled to vote and have not yet voted, or you want to change a previously asked vote, please do so now via website. The board recommends that stockholders vote for proposals 1, 23. And vote against proposals. Proposals being considered today are explained in detail in our proxy statement. They are.
Proposal 1, the board has recommended 10 nominees for election to our board of directors. Proposal 2, the board is seeking approval of our executive compensation. Proposal 3 is the ratification of the appointment of Duane Toupsch serve as the company's independent auditors, the 2021, 50 year. And proposal 4 is a stockholder proposal on political contributions. Mr.
Richard McRitchie will now present proposal for. And I'd like to note that if there are any technical issues with Mr. McRitchie's line, I will read the proposal for. Mr. McRitchie, you have 3 minutes to present the proposal.
I'll now ask that the operator opened Mr. McRitchie's line.
Mr. MacRitchie, your line is now open.
Okay. Thank you very much. And thanks for the offer to read it in case there was any problem. So my proposal is based on an analysis by the Center for Political Accountability. And, yes, I would like to acknowledge that Broadridge has improved its reporting of political contributions over last year.
However, they still fall short on several measures. For example, Broadridge should disclose all political payments made by trade associations or other tax exempt organizations where they are neither where they're either a member or a donor as a former legislative chief in California, I know that companies often hide behind their trade associations on issues or candidates their shareholders might oppose. Disclosure is in the best interest of the company and its shareholders. The Supreme Court recognized this in its 2010 Citizens United Decision, which said, disclosure permits citizens and shareholders to react to the speech of corporate entities and give proper way to different speakers and messages. However, that can't be done if we don't know where that money has gone.
Additionally, a congressional budget rider prohibits the SEC from prom promulgating a rule requiring companies to fully disclose political contributions. That's something that Republicans put in after more than a million letters were sent into the SEC, saying that they want such a rule. Unfortunately, Broadridge chose not to talk with me or with the Center for Political Accountability, Had they done so, I expect we could have easily suggested minor changes to Broadridge's policies that would have enabled them to hold their trade associations more accountable by either having them report specific payments or by having Broadridge prohibit them from using funds from Broadridge for certain activities. Please vote for proposal Number 4. In this election year, everyone should want dark money disclosed.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Recrushy, and thank you for your interest in Broadridge. We have received the stockholder votes, and I declare the polls closed. And now, I'll turn the meeting over to our chief executive officer, Tim Gokey.
I have just been informed that I was speaking into, intermediate microphone. So thank you, Maria, and, and good morning to everyone. I'm Tim Gokey, CEO of Broadridge, and I wanna welcome you to our 2020 annual shareholder meeting. I, I also want to add my thanks to Maria's to Mr. McGritchie.
The issue that he's pointed out is a very important one, one we take very seriously, and his proposal caused us to re review our policies and I think, make some real improvements. So, so thank you, Mister McVichey. As we said, this is our 12th, virtual only annual meeting, which is once again powered by Broadridge's virtual shareholder meeting analogy. We are on track this year, to Calend 2020 to directly facilitate almost 2000 virtual shareholder meetings. That's up from just over 300 last year.
That's just one area where Broadridge has seen substantial growth in the past year. Before I jump into Biden's results, I want to take a moment to acknowledge this period of unprecedented global turmoil. The one that we've been in since the onset of COVID 19 pandemic. The pandemic has had profound impact on people and communities, including our own. Combined with an increased focus on racial justice, these health economic and social crises, make it clear that we are in the midst of a unique moment.
This difficult period is testing the strength and resilience of both individuals and companies, and it's been inspiring to see how Broadridge and our associates have responded. It's also a moment that has underscored the critical an important nature of the work that we do to support financial markets by providing critical infrastructure, powering, investing, corporate governance, and communications. By staying focused on health and welfare of our associates, supporting our communities, delivering strong results, executing flawlessly for our clients, and increasing investment Broadridge is. Meeting a moment. As part of this virtual annual meeting format, I want to share with you just a few highlights regarding our fiscal year 2020 financial results as well as results from the first quarter of fiscal 21.
When I'm done with my prepared comments, I'll answer questions received from shareholders. First, some highlights from 2021. And
I'm very pleased
with the strong results that we showed Our recurring revenues grew by 10 percent to $3,000,000,000. This strong performance contributed to an 8% growth and adjusted earnings per share. We generated record close sales for 2 391. Which provides us strong and strong momentum for fiscal 2021. In August, our board approved a 6% increase in our annual dividend to $2.30 per share.
This is the 14th consecutive year of a dividend increase, which is every year since we came up with a company in 2007. In fiscal 2020, we also achieved our 3 year objectives for recurring revenue growth, margin expansion, and adjusted EPS growth. We've generated total shareholder return of 76% over the 3 year period. Resulting in performance in a top quartile companies in the S and P 500. We're right now in the process of setting new objectives.
They'll take us forward to fiscal year 2023. And I look forward to sharing with you, sharing them with you at our upcoming investor day on December 10th, 2020. Wanna also give you a brief summary of our first quarter fiscal 2021 results. We continued the strong momentum from fiscal 2020, into the first quarter. Our performance in the face of the ongoing pandemic highlights, resilience of our recurring revenue business model, and the power of a long term trends, propelling our results.
Recurring revenues rose 8% to 671 The growth in recurring revenues and strong cost actions contributed to 44% growth in adjusted EPS. For a first quarter record of 98¢. In summary, we're off to a good start. As we noted on our first quarter earnings call in October 30th, this positive start to the fiscal year gives us additional confidence in our full year guidance. Enables us to increase our level of investment in our people, platforms, and technology.
All in all, we started 21 with real government income. Now, in my 11th, full fiscal year at Broadridge. Now, my 2nd full year is CEO. I am more excited than ever about our ability to create growing long term and sustainable value for our clients, associates, shareholders. Before I turn it over to the Q And A portion review, I want to thank our board of directors for their insights, their guidance, and contributions, which have been essential for success.
I also want to thank. I'm more than 12,000 fellow associates Across the Globe who shared passion and dedication have driven Broadridge's success over the past years. Even in a normal year, is their commitment and passion for serving our clients
that has set us apart?
Now, in this unusual time, our associates are persevering through remote work, temperature checks, social distancing. They're balancing parenting and family responsibilities. And through all of that, they're delivering world class folks to our clients. I also wanna express my gratitude to you, our shareholders, for the confidence you've shown in me as your CEO. Our continued growth highlights the long term trends driving our business and the strength of our recurring revenue business model And I remain confident that the best is yet to come for Broadridge.
And one final point. I want to remind all of you of our upcoming virtual initiative in December 10th. We're looking forward to showcasing the guests of our management team. Providing more insight about our growth strategy across governance, capital markets, and Wealth Investment Management, and sharing our updated 3 year growth objectives. I'm gonna now open the Q And A portion of our meeting.
You can ask a question during the meeting. By submitting it in the ask a question field or by calling 1800 or excuse me, 1877 3 282502. Again, that's 1877 3282502. If time doesn't allow or a follow-up is required, We'll respond to your questions within 24 hours. Response is available on our Investor Relations website.
Broadridgedashir.com. I'm gonna take the questions in the following order. First, we'll answer any questions that were submitted prior to me. Then we'll answer questions submitted online, online live during the year. Finally, we'll answer questions from the phone.
After Q And A, Marie Allen, our Corporate Secretary will report the meeting results. I'll begin with questions that were submitted to us before she made mute. Maria will read the question. Maria?
Tim, the first question is, I would like to know more about the company's position on the global pandemic and how it will affect Broadridge in the long term.
Well, thank you for the question. And there's, there's, there's no question that this pandemic has wrecked tremendous human and economic trouble, our country around the world, and I think we can't wish for it to be over soon enough. And your question about the long term impact is an important one. So so I'm glad that that you asked. Probably speaking, we're seeing that the trends that are driving our growth are being accelerated by the pandemic.
The pressure on financial services firms to simplify their operations and reduce costs through mutualization has only grown, and our extra time at home within a crash course digital for all of us. So the need to adopt new technologies and to incorporate additional data only continues to grow. So, this urgency around next generation, visualization, resiliency, and digital transformation. Is all day starting to show up in our discussions with clients. Clients who used to worry about losing a facility.
Now, they need to worry about losing the country. Or the globe. And the investment required to build that resiliency across their entire technology has faced significantly increased in the logic for mutualized solutions. Digital transformation, next generation technology, are also significantly inequity streaming. So as we move through fiscal 2021, we are upping our investment in our people, platforms, and technology to be able to further support our lives.
I'm very confident these investments are going to leave Broadridge better positioned than ever to take advantage of the post pandemic recovery for the long term. So while we're being very cautious about the uncertain outlook in the near term, I can say that the long term growth opportunities for Broadridge have never been met We look forward to sharing more details about these trends that I just mentioned when you host our Investor Day in December. Maria?
Tim, the next question also submitted before the meeting is for Broadridge Solutions proxy vote. How do I get a copy of the proposal report for changes to political contributions?
Yes. I I believe that this question is, is about when the results of the voting unplocal contributions proposal will be available. So so those results, will, and all the proposals will be, will be available within 4 business days, and then an 8 K filing that we'll make. And, there's also a, a detailed discussion of the proposal and, and and our response that was, that was created by both I assess and by Glass Lewis, who are the, vote recommendation services. They both voted recommend recommend a voting, with management.
And, so that could also be made available. Thank you. Now I'm gonna turn to to any questions we see from shareholders online during the meeting. Maria, have we have we had any questions from online?
Yes. I have one question. Tim, the question is, why did Broadridge closed voting, the second I concluded my presentation of proposal for, leaving no time for anyone attending the meeting. Time to vote or change their vote. I think that's coming from Mr.
McRitchie.
Okay. Great. Well, Mr. McRitchie, thank you again for, for being here today. Which I think, that you're able to be here without travel, I think really demonstrates the effectiveness of, of this form.
So so thank you for that. And you know, it's a good question. We could actually open up, a little bit longer. We were just as part of our rental show as we go through the mechanics of, of what we're trying to do here. And so, thank you very much.
And, Tim, we have another question. If you haven't already, please comment on the status and success of the virtual annual meeting business?
Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you for asking. Because it's, it's an important question in this, in this critical time. The, virtual shareholder meetings are something that we started, over 10 years ago in 2009 and four meetings in our, in our 1st year.
And if it's something that has been growing, incrementally slowly over time to about, just over 300 meetings, last year and calendar year, 2019. And what we're seeing over that time is that, companies who have adopted this format have had significant increases in participation. By the shareholder. I know that's the case for us. We're the participation, today, ninety, ninety people participating.
It's it's, more than ten times as many people as we had participating, before this. And we had, as we've had, you know, very large Fortune 100 Fortune 500 companies join, we always get very positive feedback about, how it has enabled participation for them. Over this past year, with the pandemic, there's been a, a real change for, adoption of this technology. And, in fact, this year, we've gone from just over 300 meetings to over 2000, and, so it's an incredible, incredible amount of growth it is, in fact, up to now, there have been, over 75,000 participants in shareholder meetings this year on this platform. So it has been, something that we've been very proud of in terms of our ability to scale and really help companies through this top period, and it's something that we think will be, not really enables participation for, for broad range.
And so I would
And I'm checking with the VSM team. There are no more online questions at this time, Tim. We will now take questions from the phone line. Operator, do you have any questions on the line?
No, there are no There are no questions in the audio Q And A. This concludes our phone question and answer session. I would like to turn the meeting back over to Tim Gokey.
Great. And that really wraps it up for, for my part of this. I'm gonna turn the meeting back to, Maria, our corporate secretary to announce the results of the shareholder votes.
Thank you, Tim. The Inspector Election has presented me with a report of the votes received for and against each of the Ozels. All votes are subject to final counts certified by the inspector, but we do not expect the final totals to differ greatly. Regarding proposal 1, I'm pleased to report that all of our 10 nominees have been elected. With all nominees receiving at least 92% of the vote path.
Proposal 2, the proposal to approve the company's executive compensation has passed for approximately 96% of the votes cap. Proposal 3, the appointment of Deloitte in 2 serve as the independent auditors of the 2021 fiscal year has been approved approximately 98% of the boat's cap. And proposal 4, the stockholder proposal on political costs has not with approximately 13% of the votes cap. In favor of the proposal. The complete voting results will be contained in the Form 8 K that the company will file with yesterday within 4 business days following this meeting.
The 8 K will be available on Broadridge's website promptly after Rich, I turn the meeting back over to you.
Thanks, Maria. I wanna thank everyone for attending today. There being no further business. Meeting is now adjourned. Thank you.