Every month, Compliance Week publishes a list of the largest stock option grants and restricted stock awards during the previous period. The data and analysis are provided by compensation research firm Equilar.

THE DATA

Note

Please note that all values are rough “face value” numbers that are calculated by data provider Equilar by multiplying the number of shares in the grant by the market price per share on the grant date.

Latest Data

The spreadsheet below will include the “Top 10” lists for each month in 2008 as they become available.

View the Top Equity Awards Made in December and the Rest of 2008

Prior Years’ Data

View Equity Awards From Each Month in 2007

View Equity Awards From Each Month in 2006

View Equity Awards From Each Month in 2005

View Equity Awards From Each Month in 2004

Source: Equilar Inc.

The largest grant of stock options went to John Wren, CEO of the Omnicom Group. He received a grant of 1 million options on Dec. 29 with an exercise price of $25.48 each, implying a face value of nearly $25.5 million. Five other executives at the advertising behemoth also made the December rankings of equity awards, all with grants of 500,000 options that carry a face value of $12.74 million.

Other companies doling out large option grants last month included Devon Energy, Ecolab, and Cephalon.

The largest restricted stock award went to the chairman and CEO of URS Corp., Martin Koffel. On Dec. 10, he received 300,000 restricted shares worth $12.2 million, based on a grant date share price of $40.76. In second place was Larry Nichols, CEO of Devon Energy; he received 92,100 shares on Dec. 8 worth $6 million, based on a grant date share price of $65.32. Other companies on the December list included Halliburton, Deer & Co., Anadarko Petroleum, and Carnival Corp.

A downloadable spreadsheet of those awards can be found in the box at right.

Trends, Performance

According to Equilar, several grants of “premium-priced” options were awarded in December, an increasingly common compensation practice. Awards are considered premium-priced when the exercise price of the grant is higher than the stock price on the grant date. Such awards are not well loved by executives, as the awards are immediately “underwater,” so the company’s stock price has to rise to the level of the exercise price for the award to have any value.

For example, on Dec. 10, Trinity Industries granted options to 10 executives with an exercise price 10 percent higher than the company’s closing stock price of $14.76. And on Dec. 31, Lexington Realty Trust granted options to three executives with an exercise price 12 percent higher than the company’s closing stock price of $5.

Notably, for the second month in a row no company gave out grants with shorter-term lengths. Grants of shorter-term lengths can reap some savings benefits when companies report their cost on financial statements and have been a common phenomenon since companies had to start expensing stock options in 2006; how much the current market turmoil is responsible for the sudden break in pattern is unclear.

Pay for Performance

Equilar also noted that companies are continuing to issue performance-based options and restricted stock. Lexington Realty Trust, for example, also granted options to three executives with the following performance-based criteria:

“Non-qualified share options vest (i) 50 percent following a 20-day trading period where the average closing price of a common share of Lexington Realty Trust on the New York Stock Exchange is $8 or higher and (ii) 50 percent following a 20-day trading period where the average closing price of a common share of Lexington Realty Trust on the NYSE is $10 or higher.”

On Dec. 19, Furniture Brands International granted restricted stock units to nine executives with the following performance-based criteria:

“The First Tranche vests upon the company’s common stock achieving a market price of $6.26 for a 10-day trailing average, and the second tranche vests upon the company’s common stock achieving a market price of $9.39 for a 10-day trailing average. If these objectives are met, payout of the first tranche and second tranche will not occur until the second and third anniversaries of the grant date, respectively.”

And on Dec. 11, LoJack Corp. granted restricted stock to eight executives with the following performance-based criteria:

“These shares vest on the third day after the company issues its earnings release for the first full fiscal year after the date of grant if LoJack Corp. meets its operating income target.”

A downloadable spreadsheet of the top equity awards in December can be found in the box above, right. Also available are data from 2004-2007.