Share-based Compensation

9 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2015

Note 11—Share-based Compensation

The Company granted the following equity awards to employees and non-employee directors under the 2007 Equity Incentive Compensation Plan during the nine months ended June 30, 2015. The amounts presented below reflect the four-for-one stock split that was effected in the second quarter of fiscal 2015. See Note 9—Stockholders' Equity.



	Granted	Weighted-Average Grant Date Fair Value		Weighted-Average Exercise Price
Non-qualified stock options	1,415,310	$	12.00	$	62.60
Restricted stock awards ("RSAs")	2,033,977	$	63.04
Restricted stock units ("RSUs")	736,702	$	62.58
Performance-based shares⁽¹⁾	785,884	$	69.78


⁽¹⁾	Represents the maximum number of performance-based shares which could be earned.

The Company’s non-qualified stock options, RSAs and RSUs are equity awards with service-only conditions and are accordingly expensed on a straight-line basis over the vesting period. The Company's performance-based shares are equity awards with service, market and performance conditions that are accounted for using the graded-vesting method. Compensation cost is recorded net of estimated forfeitures, which are adjusted as appropriate.

Employee Stock Purchase Plan. In January 2015, the Company's class A stockholders approved the Visa Inc. Employee Stock Purchase Plan (the “ESPP”), under which substantially all employees are eligible to participate. The ESPP permits eligible employees to purchase the Company’s class A common stock at a 15% discount of the stock price on the purchase date, subject to certain restrictions. A total of 20 million shares of class A common stock have been reserved for issuance under the ESPP. The first offering date was April 1, 2015. The ESPP does not have a material impact on the consolidated financial statements.