More Stock Pegged For Employee Incentives

U.S. companies are setting aside much more stock for long-term incentives than they were just three years ago. An analysis by William M. Mercer Inc. of proxy information released in 1998 found that the median percentage of outstanding common shares that companies are setting aside for equity grant is 10.7% compared with 8.7% in 1995. That's an increase of more than 20%. The median value of the stock that companies are setting aside: $757.2 million. A copy of the study is available from William M. Mercer Inc.