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Stock-Based Compensation History Chart
Chart any stock's 10-year stock-based compensation trend in one view, with an SBC-to-revenue ratio overlay and a dilution-discipline verdict. Auto-populates from Yahoo Finance. Pair it with the SG&A history chart and the operating cost cluster tools in the sidebar.
How to Read the Stock-Based Compensation Trend
Stock-based compensation — SBC — is the expense a company records when it pays employees with equity instead of cash: restricted stock units (RSUs), stock options, and employee stock purchase plans. It is a real cost to shareholders even though no cash leaves the business, because every share granted to an employee dilutes the ownership of existing investors. That is why SBC is the quiet lever behind the gap between a company's GAAP earnings and the “adjusted” or non-GAAP figures management prefers to headline.
The bars on this chart are colored by severity — each year's SBC as a share of revenue. Green bars are nominal (under 3%), yellow moderate (3–8%), orange elevated (8–15%), and red excessive (15% or more). Absolute dollars alone can mislead: a company growing revenue faster than its grant pool may see SBC rise in dollar terms while the ratio falls. That is why this chart overlays the SBC-to-revenue ratio as an orange line. A falling ratio means equity grants are consuming a smaller share of each revenue dollar — the sign of a business growing into its compensation, not buying growth with dilution.
The dilution-discipline verdict compares the average SBC/revenue ratio over the past three years versus the prior three years. A drop of more than two percentage points earns “Improving.” A rise of more than two points triggers “Deteriorating.” Pair this chart with the ROIC guide to understand how dilution and share count feed into true per-share returns.
Related Tools
Complete the operating-cost and profitability picture with these related tools:
- SG&A History Chart — 10-year overhead trend with SG&A-to-revenue overlay
- Gross Profit History Chart — 10-year gross profit trend with margin overlay
- Operating Income History Chart — core profitability after all overhead, over 10 years
- ROIC Guide — how dilution and share count feed into per-share returns
Frequently Asked Questions
What does this chart show?
It plots up to 10 fiscal years of a company's annual stock-based compensation as bars, with the SBC-to-revenue ratio overlaid as a line. The bar colors indicate severity: green is nominal (under 3% of revenue), yellow is moderate (3–8%), orange is elevated (8–15%), and red is excessive (15% or more). The ratio line reveals whether equity grants are consuming a larger or smaller share of revenue over time.
What do the bar colors mean?
Each bar is colored by that year's SBC as a percentage of revenue. Green means nominal, under 3% of revenue. Yellow means moderate, 3% to 8%. Orange means elevated, 8% to 15%. Red means excessive, 15% or more — a level at which equity dilution is a material drag on per-share value and GAAP earnings diverge sharply from adjusted figures.
What is the SBC verdict?
The verdict compares the average SBC-to-revenue ratio over the most recent 3 years against the prior 3 years. If the ratio dropped by more than 2 percentage points, the verdict is Improving — revenue is outpacing compensation grants. If it rose by more than 2 points, the verdict is Deteriorating — SBC is growing faster than revenue and dilution risk is rising. Otherwise the ratio is Stable relative to revenue.
FINISHED THE NUMBERS?
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Assumptions, scenarios, and what breaks them — on any public company.
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