Nov 14 (Reuters) -

There have been numerous changes among CEOs in the last 18

months, and Walmart's ( WMT ) announcement that Chief Executive Doug

McMillon

will retire in January

is only the latest.

Those companies' performances have varied, but Walmart's ( WMT )

returns have been among the strongest.

A Reuters analysis of companies that have changed their

leadership in the past year-and-a-half, including Nestle

and Starbucks ( SBUX ), show which ones have performed

best under their CEOs' tenure.

In annualized total terms, the company that delivered the

best returns to its shareholders is Pandora.

Under the leadership of Alexander Lacik, at the helm since

February 2019, the Danish jewelry brand posted annualized total

returns of 17%, calculated from the day before the CEO took up

office to Nov. 14, 2025.

In September, the firm announced Lacik would retire next

March and be succeeded by marketing chief Berta de

Pablos-Barbier.

Walmart ( WMT ) is second on the list. Its annualized total return came

to 15% over the decade since January 2014 with McMillon in

charge.

The CEO, who will be replaced by U.S. division chief CEO John

Furner, joined in January 2014.

A laggard in this CEO scorecard is German sportswear brand Puma

, which under Arne Freundt saw a negative annualized

total return of 36.6%. He was replaced in April by former Adidas

sales chief Arthur Hoeld.

Looking at total return, French luxury group Kering

takes the crown as it delivered a whopping 520% total return to

its shareholders in the past 20 years with Francois-Henri

Pinault at the company's top position between March 2005 and

September of this year.

Walmart ( WMT ) comes second in this metric at 419%, while drinks

group Diageo ( DEO ), Nike ( NKE ) and KitKat maker Nestle were

among the worst performers.