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Stock programs with employers
July 12, 2018
9:38 am
undersc0re
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Looking for opinions or stats about large employers who offer to match a certain percentage of shares if the employee buys a certain amount with limits of course as far as I have seen. I had a conversation with an older fellow at work that said he noticed that 9 out of 10 times that the stocks are going to be pulled around pay period time for employees that share prices goes up quite a bit in the few days leading up to it. Is this a well know fact in the industry? I know everything is not certain, but it is another decision factor I was wondering about? I am sure it must influence the huge employers share price.

July 12, 2018
7:38 pm
Norman1
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Does the employee stock plan purchase the shares off the stock exchange or does it receive new shares issued by the company?

July 12, 2018
10:12 pm
undersc0re
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I have no idea, how would one find that out? I know it is through computershare.

July 13, 2018
7:57 am
Norman1
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There is usually a plan brochure that has those details, including where the shares are coming from, how the price of the those shares will be arrived at, who is paying what costs of the plan, and any matching contributions by the employer.

TransCanada has a public plan, run by Computershare, for TransCanada shareholders to reinvest their dividends and purchase additional common shares. General information about the plan is in the middle of their Dividends page. Its plan brochure is at Plan Brochure: Canadian Investors.

July 13, 2018
8:20 am
Kidd
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MAGNA had a stock option plan for their employees. The web link that i'm trying to attach is a pdf file, which contains all of Magna's option details.

GM had something like bonds which the employees could buy. I did NOT participate in GM's offer, so i do not know the details. I do know, when GM ran into financial difficulties, the program was stopped.

MAGNA INTERNATIONAL INC. 2009 STOCK OPTION PLAN

PDF https://www.magna.com › migrated › pdf

I can not get the correct link pasted here. Google this.... MAGNA INTERNATIONAL INC. 2009 STOCK OPTION PLAN

July 13, 2018
8:38 am
Norman1
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Kidd said

MAGNA INTERNATIONAL INC. 2009 STOCK OPTION PLAN

PDF https://www.magna.com › migrated › pdf

I can not get the correct link pasted here. Google this.... MAGNA INTERNATIONAL INC. 2009 STOCK OPTION PLAN

Here is the direct link: MAGNA INTERNATIONAL INC. 2009 Stock Option Plan

That's a slightly different kind of plan: An employee stock option plan instead of an employee stock purchase plan.

July 13, 2018
8:57 am
Top It Up
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This goes a long way back BUT my recollection is the company offered a voluntary matching ESPP to it's employees - the amount of participation was a percentage of your annual income. The shares were distributed quarterly to the employees via a physical stock certificate. The share purchase price was the average of the previous 5-day trading close on the TSE; the shares were not purchased on the open market but rather came out of the company's treasury. It was a hell of a good deal for all employees - right from entry level positions through to the executive level.

Side note, there was a guy in the office that purchased the shares from employees at the strike price thereby saving those employees paying brokerage fees to sell them off. He paid them in cash and they signed over the shares on the reverse side of the certificate - every quarter there was quite the parade of junior employees going to his office to cash-out ... who's next?

July 15, 2018
9:24 am
Norman1
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I saw remnants of a similar stock purchase plan in the HR material at one company I worked at.

Wasn't as lucrative. There was a discount (around 10% to 15%) on shares issued from the treasury. There was a minimum holding period of several months.

Plan was supposed to encourage employee share ownership. But, it didn't turn out that way.

Company discontinued the plan after they found that employees were selling their discounted shares at market value (for the 10% to 15% profit) as soon as the minimum holding period passed.

July 15, 2018
9:57 am
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Pretty naive of that company to think otherwise - employee share ownership is likely to have a different meaning between those employees earning $24,000 per annum and those employees earning $100,000 per annum.

I always encouraged my employees to sell the shares when they received them because there was always another tranche coming down the pipeline - in other words take the money and run.

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