If you work at Cousins Properties, you may be eligible to enroll in the employee stock purchase plan (ESPP). To help you make the most of this opportunity, we’ve put together a comprehensive guide to all the ins and outs of this program, from how it works to how you enroll.

Make More Money from your ESPP with Benny’s New Program

Benny 2.0 automatically manages your Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) to make you more money without disrupting your take-home pay.

Learn More

If you’d like to learn more about how ESPPs work in general, be sure to read our blog about an overview of employee stock purchase plans.

Here’s a quick rundown of how Cousins Properties’ ESPP works.

• You can buy Cousins Properties stock at a 15% discount.

• You can enroll 1 times a year:

  • Nov 15th

• You can contribute up to 15% of your salary with a maximum of $21,250 per year.

Should You Participate In Cousins Properties’ ESPP?

When you enroll in Cousins Properties’ ESPP, you have the opportunity to purchase shares of your company stock at a discounted price through automatic payroll deductions.

The benefits of participating in an ESPP are clear – you can make gains and build wealth. In fact, Cousins Properties employees can gain $3,750 or even more annually through their ESPP.

Cousins Properties’ ESPP Discount

Cousins Properties offers employees an opportunity to buy Cousins Properties stock at a 15% discount.

Cousins Properties’ ESPP Enrollment Periods

You can enroll in Cousins Properties’ ESPP 1 times a year, once in the spring and once in the fall. You can enroll by the following dates:

• Nov 15th

Cousins Properties’ ESPP Contribution Limits

The first thing you need to do is decide how much you want to contribute. You can contribute up to 15% of your salary, with a limit of $21,250 per year.

Cousins Properties’ ESPP Offering Period

The offering period is the time that employees can purchase the stock. Cousins Properties’ employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) has 12 12-month offering periods every year. 

When you’re participating in Cousins Properties’ ESPP, you set aside money from each paycheck from the beginning of a purchase period through the end. At the end of this purchase period, the money that has been set aside is used to purchase company stock at a discount.

If you are interested in Cousins Properties’ ESPP, here are some key dates to keep in mind. 

The offering periods are 

• Dec 1st – Nov 30th

The stock purchase dates are the last trading day before the end of each period.

Cousins Properties’ ESPP Lookback

Cousins Properties’ ESPP has a lookback provision for calculating the purchase price. A lookback provision is a beneficial feature that will base the purchase price for calculating the discount on the stock price either at the beginning of the offering period or at the end of the purchase period, whichever is lower.

So if Cousins Properties’ share price increases during the offering period, you pay 85% of Cousins Properties’ 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 Dec 01 =$100

• Share price on Nov 30 = $115

• Purchase price = $85 

• Gain / share = $30

To explain – the lookback feature would pick the lower of the two prices, which is $100, and then apply the discount of 15%.

This means you would buy shares at $85 ($100 – the 15% discount), However, they would be worth $115. In other words, you would earn $30 for every $85 you put into your ESPP.

In this scenario, someone who contributed $5,500 over just 12 months would receive shares valued at $7,441 …a gain of $1,941 in just 12 months.

Selling Your ESPP Shares

Once Cousins Properties purchases the shares on your behalf, they will be deposited into your brokerage account. From there, you can do what you want with them…sell immediately (as long as it’s during the open trading windows), hold for a short time, hold for an extended time, etc.

Make More Money from your ESPP with Benny’s New Program
Benny 2.0 automatically manages your Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) to make you more money without disrupting your take-home pay.

Learn More