In the first half of 2005, at least 34 companies have awarded to executives a total of 148 stock option or restricted stock grants whose strike price exceeds the price of their company’s stock at the time they were granted. That’s according to Tim Ranzetta, president and COO of compensation research firm Equilar, Inc., which tracks such “premium-priced” option grants.
Several large enterprises granted such premium-priced options, including IBM, Sprint and Computer Associates.
