Does anybody know the impact of this on ASND, or for that matter, on any of the other hi-tech companies such as INTC or MSFT?
From 1997 onwards, companies have to report "pro-forma" earnings per share in addition to the "regular" and "fully diluted" earnings per share numbers (this is because of the implementation of SFAS No. 123 -- Accounting for Stock-based Compensation).
Now, in companies that issue a lot of stock options (such as hi-tech companies in the Silicon Valley), this could reduce the pro-forma earnings considerably.
As two examples, a tech-company like LSI Logic can have its pro-forma earnings reduced by 13% for this reason alone, all other things being equal. (This was reported in Barron's a few months ago). In contrast, a non hi-tech company like Pep Boys (PBY) or Sonoco (SON) could see a reduction of 2 to 3%, at the most.
Of course, companies can still bury these numbers in their annual reports, but the thing is -- now they have to compute these numbers. They cannot just get away with some wishy-washy stuff, as they generally used to so far. If some smart-aleck analyst notices anything way out of the ordinary, he is sure to jump up and down and point it out.
Just another one of those little things to keep in mind...
Dipy. |
