A stock option is the opportunity, given by your employer, to purchase a certain number of shares of your company's common stock at a pre-established price (the grant price). Employers may subject stock options to a vesting schedule (the period of time you must wait before you can exercise a stock option).
There are two types of stock options, classified by their tax status.
NSOs do not meet certain IRS requirements that allow you special tax treatment. With NSOs, you are taxed when you exercise the stock options. You pay ordinary income and Medicare taxes and are subject to Social Security tax if you have not paid the yearly maximum on the difference between the fair market value at exercise and the grant price.
A stock option gives an employee the right to purchase stock at a predetermined price, regardless of the fair market value of the stock. A stock purchase option, available through an Employee Stock Purchase Plan, gives an employee the right to purchase company stock, sometimes at a predetermined discount from the fair market price. Although the plans are similar, they are not the same.
Both kinds of plans can be either qualified for special tax treatment or unqualified. Both can be offered to an exclusive group of participants as in the case of non-qualified Employee Stock Purchase Plans, or to all full-time employees under qualified plans.
No. A stock option gives you the right to purchase the underlying shares represented by the option for a future period of time at a pre-established price.
Stock options do expire. The expiration period varies from plan to plan. Once your options expire, they are worthless. There are often special rules for terminated, retired, and deceased employees. These life events may accelerate the expiration. Check your plan rules for details about expiration dates.
No. Once a stock option has been exercised, it cannot be used again.
No. Dividends are not paid on unexercised stock options.
There are usually special rules in the event you leave your employer, retire, or die. See your employer's plan rules for details.
See Accepting and Declining Grants for details.
See Exercising Stock Options for details.
The Summary page for stock option plans displays information about grant totals, unaccepted grants, and accepted grants. From this page, you can view detailed information about a particular grant, accept or decline unaccepted grants, exercise accepted grants, or estimate the gain on a particular grant.
You can view vesting schedule information, stock option details, and the option's current estimated value.
The total value of exercisable options is equal to the previous business day's closing price minus the grant price multiplied by either the total options or exercisable options or 0, whichever is greater. The actual value at exercise may vary.
The vesting schedule is a schedule of dates on which you receive the right of ownership for a specific number of stock options awarded as part of a stock option grant. The vesting schedule for stock options is defined in the grant agreement you sign when you accept a stock option grant. For example, say you were granted 1,000 stock options on February 1, 2004. The vesting schedule may state that 200 of the options will be vested on February 1, 2008, another 200 options will be vested on February 1, 2009, another 200 on February 1, 2010, etc.
The expiration date is the date on which your agreement expires. It is the date, according to the terms of your grant agreement with your company and your company's stock plan, after which you can no longer exercise your grant. Under certain provisions of the stock plan and grant agreement, such as a change in employment status, the expiration date may be accelerated.
You can view a history of all transactions for your stock option plan for the past 10, 30, 60, 90, or 120 days. Transactions appear in reverse chronological order, but you can also sort the list of transactions by transaction type, grant ID, grant date, or quantity. You can view details pertaining to accepted and declined grants.
Click View > Plan Information and Documents. For accepted grants, you can also click View Details under Actions for a grant, then click View Plan Document or View Grant Agreement on the View Details page. You can also view your plan document and grant agreement when you accept or decline an unaccepted grant.
Your plan information and documents are in PDF format. You must have the free Acrobat® Reader® to view and print the plan document.
For stock options, requests are open exercises. You can see all open exercises, as well as exercises which are pending cancellation. Details include quantity, symbol, grant ID, grant date, grant type, fair market value description, and other request details.
If an exercise request is still open, you can submit a request to cancel by clicking Attempt to Cancel next to the request on the Pending Exercises page. To submit the request, review the information on the Review & Submit Cancel Request page, and click Next. The Confirmation page displays a unique confirmation number for your cancellation request.
Note that the confirmation number does not indicate that your exercise request has actually been canceled, only that a cancellation request has been placed. Your cancellation request is subject to prevailing market conditions and prior execution of your original request. To check the status of your cancellation request, return to the Pending Exercises page.