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Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives

John C. Hull

Chapter 16

Employee stock options - all with Video Answers

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Chapter Questions

03:10

Problem 1

Why was it attractive for companies to grant at-the-money stock options prior to 2005 ? What changed in 2005 ?

Tommy Nguyen
Tommy Nguyen
Numerade Educator

Problem 2

What are the main differences between a typical employee stock option and an American call option traded on an exchange or in the over-the-counter market?

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Problem 3

Explain why employee stock options on a non-dividend-paying stock are frequently exercised before the end of their lives, whereas an exchange-traded call option on such a stock is never exercised early.

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Problem 4

"Stock option grants are good because they motivate executives to act in the best interests of shareholders." Discuss this viewpoint.

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Problem 5

"Granting stock options to executives is like allowing a professional footballer to bet on the outcome of games." Discuss this viewpoint.

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02:10

Problem 6

Why did some companies backdate stock option grants in the United States prior to 2002 ? What changed in 2002 ?

Oluwadamilola Ameobi
Oluwadamilola Ameobi
Numerade Educator

Problem 7

In what way would the benefits of backdating be reduced if a stock option grant had to be revalued at the end of each quarter?

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Problem 8

Explain how you would do an analysis similar to that of Yermack and Lie to determine whether the backdating of stock option grants was happening.

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Problem 9

On May 31 a company's stock price is $$\$ 70$$. One million shares are outstanding. An executive exercises 100,000 stock options with a strike price of $$\$ 50$$. What is the impact of this on the stock price?

Rashmi Sinha
Rashmi Sinha
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Problem 10

The notes accompanying a company's financial statements say: "Our executive stock options last 10 years and vest after 4 years. We valued the options granted this year using the Black-Scholes-Merton model with an expected life of 5 years and a volatility of $20 \%$." What does this mean? Discuss the modeling approach used by the company.

James Kiss
James Kiss
Numerade Educator

Problem 11

In a Dutch auction of 10,000 options, bids are as follows: $A$ bids $$\$ 30$$ for 3,000; B bids $$\$ 33$$ for 2,500 ; $\mathrm{C}$ bids $$\$ 29$$ for 5,000 ; $\mathrm{D}$ bids $$\$ 40$$ for 1,000 ; $\mathrm{E}$ bids $$\$ 22$$ for 8,000 ; and $\mathrm{F}$ bids $$\$ 35$$ for 6,000 . What is the result of the auction? Who buys how many at what price?

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Problem 12

A company has granted 500,000 options to its executives. The stock price and strike price are both $$\$ 40$$. The options last for 12 years and vest after 4 years. The company decides to value the options using an expected life of 5 years and a volatility of $30 \%$ per annum. The company pays no dividends and the risk-free rate is $4 \%$. What will the company report as an expense for the options on its income statement?

Rashmi Sinha
Rashmi Sinha
Numerade Educator
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Problem 13

A company's CFO says: "The accounting treatment of stock options is crazy. We granted $10,000,000$ at-the-money stock options to our employees last year when the stock price was $$\$ 30$$. We estimated the value of each option on the grant date to be $$\$ 5$$. At our year-end the stock price had falle to $$\$ 4$$, but we were still stuck with a $$\$ 50$$ million charge to the P\&L." Discuss.

Rashmi Sinha
Rashmi Sinha
Numerade Educator
03:51

Problem 14

What is the (risk-neutral) expected life for the employee stock option in Example 16.2? What is the value of the option obtained by using this expected life in Black-ScholesMerton?

Oluwadamilola Ameobi
Oluwadamilola Ameobi
Numerade Educator
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Problem 15

A company has granted $2,000,000$ options to its employees. The stock price and strike price are both $$\$ 60$$. The options last for 8 years and vest after 2 years. The company decides to value the options using an expected life of 6 years and a volatility of $22 \%$ per annum. Dividends on the stock are $$\$ 1$$ per year, payable halfway through each year, and the risk-free rate is $5 \%$. What will the company report as an expense for the options on its income statement?

Rashmi Sinha
Rashmi Sinha
Numerade Educator

Problem 16

A company has granted $1,000,000$ options to its employees. The stock price and strike price are both $$\$ 20$$. The options last 10 years and vest after 3 years. The stock price volatility is $30 \%$, the risk-free rate is $5 \%$, and the company pays no dividends. Use a four-step tree to value the options. Assume that there is a probability of $4 \%$ that an employee leaves the company at the end of each of the time steps on your tree. Assume also that the probability of voluntary early exercise at a node, conditional on no prior exercise, when (a) the option has vested and (b) the option is in the money, is
$$
1-\exp [-a(S / K-1) / T]
$$
where $S$ is the stock price, $K$ is the strike price, $T$ is the time to maturity, and $a=2$.

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Problem 17

(a) Hedge funds earn a management fee plus an incentive fee that is a percentage of the profits, if any, that they generate (see Business Snapshot 1.3). How is a fund manager motivated to behave with this type of compensation package?
(b) "Granting options to an executive gives the executive the same type of compensation package as a hedge fund manager and motivates him or her to behave in the same way as a hedge fund manager." Discuss this statement.

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