SBC Expense and DCF
I was hoping someone could shed some light on the opinions of the treatment of stock based compensation (SBC) expense.
I have been involved on a few buy side engagements where the selling bank, and their client, has excluded SBC expenses from their historical and projected numbers. Is the rationale simply that they are non-cash addbacks?
What would be the arguments for keeping the expense in? I've thought of the SBC expense as a cost of compensation in that people's comp packages include stock options. And by removing the expense historically, you'd be understating the cost of employees. (i.e. if all employees get paid in 25% options, 75% cash, you're only accounting for 75% of their compensation if stock options went away entirely).
Anyone have any thoughts on how they're seeing this being treated on the buy or sell side?
SBC should be recognized as an expense at the current fair value of the stock. This expense can be recognized over the period benefited by the employee's service (service period). No cash flow though.
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