2275 Cabot Drive, Lisle 60532; 630-588-5000
Web site: www.wallace.com
Founded: 1908
Employees: 8,050; 1,705 in Illinois
Year-end: July 31
Foreign sales: None of $906.3 million
Chief executive: Robert J. Cronin, 53, since 1992
Cash compensation: $666,874, down 6 percent
Options granted: $303,210, up less than 1 percent
Options, stock appreciation rights exercised: $428,849
Shares owned: 178,346 of 43 million
Largest shareholder: Ruane Cuniff & Co., 15.9 percent
Stock: 365-day close as of April 15
High: $40.37
Low: $25.62
April 15: $35.69
April 17, 1998, value of $1,000 in company stock:
Purchased 1997: $1,154
Purchased 1993: $3,022
Wallace is essentially a printing company that makes a variety of business forms, labels and office products, including mortgage application forms, sweepstake mailings and legal pads.
A hostile takeover attempt by business-forms supplier Moore Corp. of Toronto created some uncertainty at Wallace last year and hampered its profits and sales growth.
But analysts expect Wallace to rebound, sustaining annual growth of about 20 percent over the next several years due to its impressive order-fulfillment capability, a new version of its supplies-management software system and a growing list of top-flight customers.
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A guide to the Top 100 profiles
The Tribune’s business staff profiles the Chicago area’s Top 100 companies, based on market capitalization as of April 15. Here’s a quick primer on the information you’ll find:
– The CEO’s cash compensation, including bonus and other compensation paid in 1997, along with the change from the prior year.
– The figure for the CEO’s stock holdings includes shares the CEO had the right to acquire within 60 days of the proxy statement’s issuance.
– The company’s largest shareholder.
– Estimated current values of stock options granted the CEO, and the change from the prior year, as well as options and stock appreciation rights exercised during the year. In most cases, the value of options granted is based on an assumption of a 5 percent annual rate of stock price growth, or is determined using the Black-Scholes option pricing model.
– Theoretical total-return investment results for shares purchased for $1,000 a year ago and five years ago. The date on which these calculations are based is April 17. The results assume reinvestment of dividends on a quarterly basis.
The information in the profiles was obtained from the following sources:
– Company reports, including annual reports, public stock offering prospectuses and proxy statements.
– Interviews with company officials.
– Reports by securities analysts.
– News reports.
– Bloomberg News, New York.
– “Hoover’s Handbook,” The Reference Press Inc., Austin, Texas.
