The NASPP Blog

Counting the shares underlying time-based awards is usually straightforward: one share granted equals one share issued. Performance awards, on the other hand, usually provide for a spectrum of possible payouts: one share granted might mean two shares issued, or .5 shares issued, or no shares issued. Given the many possible payout levels, how many shares should be considered granted for the various administrative and reporting purposes that are relevant to performance awards?

The last two issues of The Corporate Executive (January-February and May-June) took a look at this question and came up with 16 different purposes for which shares under performance awards are counted. In almost all cases the shares are counted differently. I thought it would be interesting to take a look a few of these purposes in the NASPP Blog. Now, 16 purposes is far too many to go through in one blog entry, so I’ll start with just one purpose and I’ll look at more in future entries.  For today’s entry, we’ll look at counting the number of shares available in the plan.

Counting Performance Awards Against the Shares Available for Future Grants

There are no legal requirements that govern how performance awards must be counted against a plan’s reserve (other than those contained within the plan itself). Thus, for purposes of reducing the number of shares available in the plan as a result of performance awards, companies can make a policy decision as to whether to count the threshold, target, or maximum shares against the reserve.

Survey Says …

According to the NASPP’s Domestic Stock Plan Design Survey (cosponsored by Deloitte Consulting), practices in this area are split:

• 48% of respondents tracking awards against the plan reserve at the maximum payout
• 43% tracking them at the target payout
• 7% track awards at the expected payout
• 1% use some other approach

Best Practice (IMHO)

I feel pretty strongly that the best practice is to count performance awards against the plan reserve at the maximum possible payout. Where awards are counted at the target payout (or, worse, at the threshold payout), there is a risk that the company will not be able to meet its obligations should a higher level of performance be achieved. Once the performance period has closed, failing to have sufficient shares in the plan to cover the payout is problematic. At a minimum, allocating additional shares to the plan would require shareholder approval, which is not accomplished at the drop of a hat. There are likely to be accounting and securities law implications, as well.

Drawbacks

But this approach has its drawbacks. As evidenced by the NASPP survey, many companies are reluctant to earmark shares for a payout that isn’t expected (in some cases, not even remotely) to be achieved. In the current environment, where share usage by public companies is heavily scrutinized and restricted by proxy advisors and institutional investors, reducing the plan reserve by the maximum possible payout could prevent the company from making subsequent grants at the desired level or force the company to request shareholder approval for additional allocations to the plan earlier than would otherwise be necessary.

– Barbara