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

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 2009 as they become available.

View the Top Equity Awards Made in Sept.

Prior Years’ Data

View Equity Awards From Each Month in 2008

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 equity compensation award last month went to Michael Jeffries, chairman and CEO of clothing retailer Abercrombie and Fitch. On Sept. 22 he received a grant of 1.04 million options with a strike price of $33.53, implying a face value of nearly $35 million. Like most retailers, Abercrombie has been reporting unimpressive numbers lately as the recession takes its toll.

Other companies giving large grants of stock options in September included Cardinal Health (which had four of the largest 10 awards), Colgate-Palmolive, Archer Daniels Midland Co., and Clorox.

Sewell

The largest restricted stock award last month went to Bruce Sewell, the new general counsel at Apple. He received 100,000 shares on Sept. 21 worth $18.4 million, based on a grant-date share price of $184.02. Sewell defected to Apple from Intel, where he had been general counsel and worked on legal affairs for the microchip giant since 1995.

Other companies giving large grants of stock options in August included Georgia Gulf Co., Mastercard, CB Richard Ellis, and Electronic Arts.

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

Trends, Performance

September saw no grants of premium-priced options, which typically had been a fixture of the compensation scene until the stock market collapse last year. 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.

Two companies gave grants with shorter vesting periods than those doled out in the previous fiscal years; on Sept. 14, Oshkosh granted options to 13 executives with terms of seven years, and on Sept. 30, Multimedia Games granted options to six executives with terms of seven years. (Shorter vesting terms have been an increasingly common practice, since they can lessen the effect of stock-option expensing.)

Equilar also noted that companies continue to issue performance-based grants of options or awards of restricted stock. On Sept. 10, for example, Archer Daniels Midland Co. granted restricted stock units to 22 executives with the following performance-related footnote:

“Each performance share unit represents a contingent right to receive one share of ADM common stock. The performance share units vest on June 30, 2012, but only to the extent such performance share units are earned. Performance share units are earned based on Archer-Daniels-Midland’s total shareholder return as compared to the average of total shareholder return of four separate indices.”

On Sept. 30, ADC Telecommunications granted restricted stock units to one executive with the following performance-related footnote:

“Performance-based restricted stock units issued under the ADC Telecommunications 2008 Global Stock Incentive Plan that will vest upon the satisfaction of certain conditions, including the attainment of specified performance goals by the reporting person. If the reporting person does not meet the specified performance goals, the award is forfeited. The units of restricted stock will be converted, one-for-one, into shares of common stock on Jan. 3, 2012, provided the reporting person attains the specified performance goals and remains continuously employed by the company through the earlier of: Dec. 31, 2011, or the end of a transition period with respect to the employment of the reporting person’s successor.”

A downloadable spreadsheet of the top 10 equity awards in September and the rest of 2009 can be found in the box above, right. Also available are data from 2004-2008.