Walmart offers its employees a variety of share-based compensation plans including stock options, performance share awards, and restricted stock. The following is an excerpt from a disclosure note from Walmart’s 2011 financial statements:

Required:
1. Walmart’s share-based compensation includes stock options, stock appreciation rights, restricted stock awards, and performance-based awards. What is the general financial reporting objective when recording compensation expense for these forms of compensation?
2. Walmart reported share-based expense of $371 million in 2011. Without referring to specific numbers and ignoring other forms of share-based compensation, describe how this amount reflects the value of stockoptions.

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Note 4. Share-Based Compensation As of January 31, 2011, the Company has awarded share-based compensation to executives and other asso- ciates of the Company through various share-based compensation plans. The compensation cost recognized for all plans was $371 million, $335 million and $302 million for fiscal 2011, 2010 and 2009, respectively. The following table summarizes our share-based compensation expense by award type Fiscal Years Ended January 31, 2010 $140 Amounts in millions) Restricted stock and performance share awards Restricted stock rights Stock options Share-based compensation expense 2011 $162 157 52 S371 2009 $134 84 $335 $302