Twenty four hours after FASB issued its exposure draft on stock option expensing, $1.4 billion HR consulting firm Towers released a study showing that a company's decision to expense stock options has no impact on stock price.

The study tracked 335 companies, monitoring their stock price five months before and after their announcements to disclose options.

The findings were the same as a study the firm conducted in 2002: Share performance was the same, on average, as the 900 companies comprising S&P’s 500 and mid-cap 400 indexes.

A chart is below, but keep in mind that the study looked at the period before and after a company's disclosure to expense options, not the period before and after a company actually began expensing those options on income statements.

View Time-Based Chart Of Share Prices Before, After Announcements