Hello and welcome to the Lockheed Martin's Corporation 2026 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Please note that today's meeting is being recorded. At the conclusion of the business of the meeting, we will have a discussion period. If you accessed the meeting by entering the control number provided to you in your proxy materials, you may submit one question or comment at any time by clicking the Q&A icon near the top right of your screen, typing your question into the box that appears, and then clicking Send. Please also be advised that remarks made today during today's meeting may include forward-looking statements covering future events that the company's actual results may differ materially from those projected in the statements. Please refer to our SEC filings for information on factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in those forward-looking statements.
These filings are available on Lockheed Martin's website and on the SEC's website. It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Jim Taiclet, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Lockheed Martin Corporation. Mr. Taiclet, the floor is yours.
Good morning. Thank you to everyone on the line for joining Lockheed Martin's 2026 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. The meeting is hereby called to order. I have with me today members of our management team, including Frank St. John, our Chief Operating Officer, Evan Scott, our Chief Financial Officer, and Kevin O'Connor, our General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, who will act as Secretary of the meeting. We are also joined by members of the Board of Directors, including our Lead Independent Director, Thomas Falk. I want to personally also thank Joseph F. Dunford Jr, who is not standing for re-election, for his distinguished service and contributions to the Board and to our company over the past six years. As we begin, please note that the agenda and the rules and procedures that we will be following today are posted on the virtual meeting site.
Stockholders who wish to submit a question for the discussion period may do so at any point during the meeting. Those who wish to vote during the meeting may do so until the polls close. If you have already voted, there is no need to vote again during the meeting unless you wish to change your vote. Kevin O'Connor has confirmed that the notice requirements of our bylaws have been met, and the inspectors of election have confirmed that we have a quorum based on the proxies received to date and that we can proceed with today's meeting. We will vote upon four proposals today, each of which was detailed in the 2026 proxy statement. At this time, I introduce and present proposals one through three. Proposal one is the election of nine directors to serve on the board of directors. The board recommends for each nominee.
Proposal two is the advisory vote to approve the compensation of our named executive officers. The board recommends for the proposal. Proposal three is the ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as our independent auditors for 2026. The board recommends for the proposal. I now invite the stockholders who submitted proposal four, requiring an independent board chairman, to present the proposal. The board recommends against this proposal. Operator, please activate the proponent's line.
Thank you.
Hello.
Line has been activated.
Hello, this is John Chevedden, Proposal four, independent board chairman. Charles requests the Board of Directors adopt an enduring policy and amend the governing documents in order that two separate people hold the office of the chairman and the office of the CEO as soon as possible. Chairman of the Board shall be an independent director. A lead director shall not be a substitute for an independent board chairman. Board shall have the discretion to select an interim chairman of the board who's not an independent director to serve while the board is required to seek an independent chairman of the board on an accelerated basis. An independent board chairman at all times improves corporate governance by bringing impartiality, objective oversight, and external expertise to board decisions, mitigating conflicts of interest, enhancing transparency, and boosting investor confidence.
This detached perspective allows the chairman to focus on shareholder interests, strengthen management accountability, and provide critical checks and balances, ultimately contributing to the company's long-term sustainability and profitability. An independent board chairman can also help Lockheed Martin deal with issues like these. Reports of an Iran hacking group claiming to have stolen 375 terabytes of data, including F-35 blueprints and demanding $400 million. Pentagon watchdog criticizing the F-35 for poor flight performance due to maintenance issues. An independent board chairman could help Lockheed Martin deal with a relative plateau in the stock price. The Lockheed Martin stock price was at $442 in 2020 and only at $514 now in spite of a robust stock market. Please vote yes to independent board chairman Proposal four.
It's unfortunate that Computershare is used for this meeting because street name shareholders are excluded from asking questions. Thank you.
Thank you. The line is now remuted.
For presenting the proposal. It has been properly submitted. That concludes the presentation of the proposals. The polls will close in one minute to allow stockholders time to complete their online voting on all proposals properly presented. Thank you. The polls are now closed. At this time, I'd like to announce the preliminary voting results for the proposals properly presented today, which are based on the proxies returned prior to the meeting. After the meeting, the inspectors will count any additional votes received through the closing of the polls. Official results will be announced by the filing of a Form 8-K with the SEC within four business days. The preliminary results are proposal one, each of the nine director nominees is elected to the board of directors. Proposal two, the compensation of our named executive officers is approved on an advisory basis.
Proposal three, the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as our independent auditors for 2026 is ratified. The stockholder proposal requiring an independent board chairman, proposal four, is not approved. Your board and management team take seriously the feedback that we receive from you, our stockholders. The board will discuss today's voting outcomes at its next meeting. This concludes the official business of our meeting today. The meeting is now adjourned. We will now open up to take questions from our stockholders during the remaining time that's available. I will now turn to Mark Kvasnak, our Vice President of Investor Relations, to moderate the Q&A. Over to you, Mark.
Thank you, Jim. As a reminder to our stockholders on the call, you may submit a question by clicking the Q&A icon near the top right of your screen, typing your question into the box that appears, and then clicking send. Also, please note that a representative from our independent auditors at Ernst & Young LLP is present and available to answer questions. The first question is related to buybacks or if there's any impact from the executive orders.
We maintain a dynamic and disciplined capital allocation program at Lockheed Martin, and we've done this for years and years, in the past, and we can continue to do it into the future. One of the priorities this year is getting ready for what we hope are long-term agreements for many of our products and services, where we'll need to apply more capital resources, perhaps do some more other investments to get ready for this future demand. We will continue to do conduct our disciplined and dynamic capital allocation process throughout this year and into the future.
There are no more questions. Thank you to those who submitted questions today. Jim, I'll turn it back to you.
Thank you to everyone who participated in today's annual meeting. We appreciate your continued investment in Lockheed Martin. This concludes our 2026 annual stockholders meeting.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the meeting, and you may now disconnect.