1. Consider the Coca-Cola sales and repurchases of common stock in 2013. What was the average price per share at which the company issued stock to employees for stock compensation plans?

2. Given the number of shares issued to employees related to stock compensation plans, what was the company’s total loss (in dollars) on issuing shares to employees and repurchasing the same number of shares at the market price?

3. How does this total loss number compare to the total stock-based compensation expense in 2013? Why is this comparison meaningful and/or relevant?

4. In what ways is this comparison misleading?

5. Based on the five highest paid executives’ vested options in the table on the outstanding equity awards at the end of fiscal 2013, by how many incremental shares do these options increase the denominator of diluted earnings per share?

6. In what way or ways does this adjustment to the number of shares outstanding understate the total cost to shareholders of issuing options to employees?

7. Under what condition or conditions does this adjustment to the number of shares outstanding provide a fair reflection of the total cost to shareholders of issuing options to employees?

8. Winters claims that the authorization of 340 million shares would dilute shareholders by 14 percent and cost shareholders $13 billion. Why do these figures exaggerate the costs of the equity plan to shareholders?

9. In what ways do Coca-Cola’s responses fail to address winters’s criticisms of the share-based compensation plan?

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

1 Average price per share is computed by dividing the actual cost of acquiring the shares by the number of shares purchased By the year ended 31 st December 2013 the number of shares repurchased by Co... View the full answer