If you work at eBay, 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.

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.

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

Here’s a quick rundown of how eBay’s ESPP works.

• You can buy eBay stock at a 15% discount.

• You can enroll twice a year:

  • Apr 15th

  • Oct 16th

• You can contribute up to 10% of your salary with a maximum of $21,250 per year.

Should You Participate In eBay’s ESPP?

When you enroll in eBay’s 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, eBay employees can gain $3,750 or even more annually through their ESPP.

eBay’s ESPP Discount

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

eBay’s ESPP Enrollment Periods

You can enroll in eBay’s ESPP twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall. You can enroll by the following dates:

• Apr 15th

• Oct 16th

eBay’s ESPP Contribution Limits

The first thing you need to do is decide how much you want to contribute. You can contribute up to 10% of your salary, with a limit of $21,250 per year.

eBay’s ESPP Offering Period

The offering period is the time that employees can purchase the stock. eBay’s employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) has two 6-month offering periods every year. 

When you’re participating in eBay’s 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 eBay’s ESPP, here are some key dates to keep in mind. 

The offering periods are 

• May 1st – Oct 31st

• Nov 1st – Apr 30th

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

eBay’s ESPP Lookback

eBay’s 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 eBay’s share price increases during the offering period, you pay 85% of eBay’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 01 =$100

• Share price on Oct 31 = $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 6 months would receive shares valued at $7,441 …a gain of $1,941 in just 6 months.

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