Employee Stock Option Basics
With an employee stock option plan, you are offered the right to buy a specific number of shares of company stock at a specified price called the “grant price” (also called the “exercise price” or “strike price”), within a specified number of years. Your options have a vesting date and an expiration date. You can’t exercise your options before the vesting date or after the expiration date. Your options are said to be “in the money” when the current market price of the stock is greater than the grant price. Here’s a summary of the terminology you will see in your employee stock option plan:
Grant price/exercise price/strike price: The specified price at which your employee stock option plan says you can purchase the stockIssue date: The date the option is given to youMarket price: The current price of the stockVesting date: The date you can exercise your options according to the terms of your employee stock option planExercise date: The date you exercise your optionsExpiration date: The date by which you must exercise your options before they expire
How They Work
To understand how a typical employee stock option plan works, let’s look at an example. Suppose that on January 1, 2019, you are issued employee stock options that provide you the right to buy 1,000 shares of Widget at a price of $10.00 per share. You must do that by Jan. 1, 2029. On Valentine’s Day in 2024, Widget stock reaches $20.00 per share, and you decide to exercise your employee stock options. At this time:
Your grant price is $10.00 per share.The current market price is $20.00 per share.Your issue date is January 1, 2019.Your exercise date is February 14, 2024.Your expiration date is January 1, 2029.
To exercise your stock options, you must buy the shares for $10,000 (1,000 shares x $10.00 per share). There are a few ways you could do this:
Pay cash: You could send $10,000 to the brokerage firm handling the options transaction, and you would receive 1,000 shares of Widget. You could keep the 1,000 shares or sell them. Cashless exercise: You could exercise your options and sell enough of the stock to cover the purchase price. The brokerage firm would make this happen simultaneously. You would be left with 500 shares of Widget, which you could either keep or sell. Stock swap: You could send in a certificate for 500 shares of Widget, which would be equivalent to $10,000 at the current market price, and this would be used to buy the 1,000 shares at $10.00 per share. You would be left owning a total of 1,000 shares of Widget, which you could either keep or sell.
Types of Options
There are two types of stock options companies issue to their employees:
NQs: Non-Qualified Stock OptionsISOs: Incentive Stock Options
Different tax rules apply to each type of option. With non-qualified employee stock options, taxes are most often withheld from your proceeds at the time you exercise your options. That is not necessarily the case for incentive stock options. With proper tax planning, you can minimize the tax impact of exercising your options. Your employee stock option plan will have a plan document that spells out the rules that apply to your options. Get a copy of this plan document and read it, or hire a financial planner who is familiar with these types of plans to assist you. There are many factors to consider in deciding when to exercise your options. Investment risk, tax planning, and market volatility are a few of them, but the most important factor is your personal financial circumstances, which may be different than those of your co-worker. Keep this in mind before following anyone’s advice.
Should You Keep the Stock?
Keeping too much company stock is risky. When your income and a large portion of your net worth are dependent on one company, if something bad happens to the company, your future financial security could be in jeopardy. Corporate executives need to consider that in their planning and work to diversify out of company stock.
