Investors demanding more say over companies After WellPoint missed analysts' earnings estimates for the second time in three quarters this summer and lowered its profit outlook, Royal Capital Management - which owned 837,800 shares, or less than 1 percent of the health insurer - took a step usually reserved for a company's directors: In 2006, only 28 directors at public companies in the Russell 3000 Index didn't receive a majority vote from shareholders, according to Paul Hodgson, chief research analyst at GMI Ratings, which advises large investors on corporate governance. Calls for more shareholder power aren't coming just from so-called activist investors-think Carl Icahn, Bill Ackman, and other financiers who take stakes in companies so they can press for changes. Since the financial crisis, activists are being joined by normally passive investment managers who have long been content to let company managers call the shots. At AOL, activist investor Starboard Value didn't win its bid to install three directors, but took credit for some strategic moves made by CEO Tim Armstrong, such as the sale of patents to Microsoft for $1.06 billion.