June 24, 2005 -- myStockOptions.com continues to enhance its award-winning tools with features that are available nowhere else. Responding to many companies' recent interest in stock appreciation rights (SARs), myStockOptions.com has unveiled its new Quick-Take Calculator For SARs, plus the ability to enter SARs grants into myRecords, the site's online stock compensation portfolio-tracker. These tools are available at the public version of myStockOptions.com, on custom stock plan sites, and by licensing.
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"As companies prepare for mandatory stock option expensing on their financial statements, many are considering SARs as an alternative to option grants," reports Bruce Brumberg, editor-in-chief of myStockOptions.com. Already noting this trend, myStockOptions.com earlier this year created a new content section solely on SARs, with exclusive articles and FAQs.
The SARs calculator and other enhancements are a natural next step. As Mr. Brumberg points out, they follow the structure of the site's intuitive tools for stock options, restricted stock, and restricted stock units (RSUs). "Our applications for SARs carry the same dynamic and versatile excellence that has drawn a loyal following of stock plan participants and financial advisors to our other record-keepers, calculators, and modeling tools."
New SARs Area of myRecords
Now you can enter SARs grants in myRecords, the online portfolio-tracker, and view them in a separate table alongside those for stock options and restricted stock/RSUs. In addition to storing and viewing your grant data, including vesting and expiration dates, you can model stock-price changes and "as of" dates to see total value and total gain. myRecords also lets you sort grants by next vest date, expiration date, grant type, and other features.
Quick-Take Calculator For Stock Appreciation Rights
Grant information in the highly secure myRecords feeds the calculators elsewhere on the site. Like its counterparts for stock options and restricted stock, the Quick-Take Calculator For SARs imports data straight from myRecords to let you see your profits interactively. You can:
• view your net gains after taxes for exercise/sale in shares or cash
• personalize tax data for your state, year-to-date Social Security, and federal tax rates
• see and easily print the tax breakdown and the results
• edit the tax-withholding amounts
• easily model for increases and decreases in stock prices and tax rates
Other features of this calculator are interactive, animated bar-graphs that illustrate the net gains and taxes, along with "what if" stock-price increases. These let you easily compare, and print colorful reports of, your net gains at different stock prices and tax rates.
Free And Premium Services
myRecords is available free for anybody who registers at myStockOptions.com. The Quick-Take Calculator For SARs is a premium tool that is available only to subscribers, or to companies that license the site's content and/or tools.
All of the intuitive and easy-to-use tools on myStockOptions.com now have enhancements for stock appreciation rights and restricted stock/RSUs, along with features for stock options. The tools include:
• myRecords (the online portfolio-tracker)
• Quick-Take Calculator For Stock Options
• Quick-Take Calculator For Restricted Stock
• Quick-Take Calculator For SARs
• I Need The Money Calculator (for stock options, SARs, and restricted stock)
• Comparison Modeling Tool (for stock options and SARs)
What Are SARs, And Why Do They Interest Companies?
SARs are contractual rights granted by an employer that entitle you to receive the subsequent appreciation in value of a corresponding number of company shares without having to first purchase the stock. You exercise the SAR and, depending on the plan's design and practices, receive in either cash or stock the "spread" between the exercise price and the fair market value on the date of exercise.
Much of the recent interest in stock-settled SARs stems from the decision by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to require companies to expense stock options on their quarterly financial statements. Because SARs will offer certain advantages over stock options, such as less dilution, companies have expressed interest in granting them instead of traditional stock options.
About myStockOptions.com
With exclusive articles, 600+ FAQs, global tax guides, an extensive glossary, and interactive tools, myStockOptions.com is the premier online resource of educational content and tools on stock options, restricted stock, restricted stock units, SARs, and ESPPs. The company is managed by leading experts in equity compensation, with a long history of successful newsletters, books, and training videos devoted to equity pay topics.
PC World ranks myStockOptions.com among "the most useful sites ever" that "deliver top-notch information, support, and services." myStockOptions.com has also received extensive favorable coverage in major publications, including BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The Boston Globe, and on CNN/fn, National Public Radio, PBS, Money.com, and CBSMarketWatch.com.
