If you are someone who works at Durect, then you might be eligible to enroll in Durect’s employee stock purchase plan (ESPP). This is an excellent opportunity, so to help you make the most of it, keep reading for a comprehensive guide to all the ins and outs of this program – from how it works to how you enroll.
If you’re wondering how ESPPs work in general and want to learn more, check out our blog that provides an overview of employee stock purchase plans.
Here’s a quick rundown of how Durect’s ESPP works.
- You can buy Durect stock at a 15% discount.
- You can enroll twice a year.
- Your next enrollment window closes on October 15, 2023.
- You can contribute up to 20% of your salary with a maximum of $21,250 per year.
Should You Participate In Durect’s ESPP?
If you enroll in the employer stock purchase plan offered by Durect, you have the opportunity to purchase shares of your company stock at a discounted price through automatic payroll deductions.
For Durect workers, participating in an ESPP can be extremely beneficial – it allows you to make gains and build wealth. In fact, Durect employees can gain up to $3,750 annually through their ESPP.
Durect’s ESPP Discount
Durect employees are able to purchase Durect stock at a 15% discount.
Durect’s ESPP Enrollment Period
There are two times per year in which you can enroll in Durect’s ESPP, once in the spring and once in the fall. These are the two open enrollment periods:
- March 15 – April 15
- or September 15 – October 15
Durect’s ESPP Contribution Limits
First, you must decide how much money you want to contribute to your ESPP. With Durect, you can contribute up to 20% of your salary, with a limit of $21,250 per year.
Once you are enrolled in the ESPP, you can make changes, suspend your contributions or withdraw from the program if necessary.
Durect’s ESPP Purchase Period
When participating in Durect’s ESPP, money is set aside from each of your paychecks, starting at the beginning of a purchase period and then through the end of it. At the end of the purchase period, the total amount of money that has been set aside is then used to purchase company stock at a discount.
If you are interested in Durect’s ESPP, here are some key dates to keep in mind. For the current offering period:
- The purchase periods are May 1–October 31 and November 1–April 30.
- The stock purchase dates are October 31 and April 30.
Durect’s ESPP Lookback
Some employer stock purchase plans have a lookback provision for calculating the purchase price. This is a really helpful feature that will base the purchase price for calculating the discount on the stock price on the lower of these two options: either at the beginning of the offering period, or at the end of the purchase period. This means that if you buy at the beginning of an offering period and decide to sell at the end of it, you’ll get some extra value out of your stock—even though it’s already been discounted!
So, if Durect’s share price increases during the offering period, you pay 85% of Durect’s share price on the offering date. In this scenario, the discount from the market price will exceed 15%.
Let’s look at an example:
- Share price on May 1 =$100
- Share price on October 31 = $115
- Purchase price = $85
- Gain / share = $30
To break this down – the lookback feature would pick the lower of the two share prices, which is the $100, and then apply the discount of 15%. This means you would buy shares at $85 (the 15% discount from $100) BUT they would be worth $115. In other words, you would earn $30 for every $85 that you put into your ESPP. In this scenario, someone who contributed $5,500 over 6 months would receive shares valued at $7,441…a gain of almost $2,000 in 6 months.
How does Benny help me make the most of Durect’s ESPP?
Benny makes it easy to participate in Durect’s employee stock purchase plan by giving you cash to match your ESPP paycheck deduction so you can get the benefits of your ESPP without impacting your take-home pay.
For example, if you’re contributing $350 per paycheck to Durect’s ESPP, Benny will deposit $350 in your bank account before your pay date each paycheck.
Use our ESPP calculator to see how much you can earn with Durect’s ESPP.