Q: I own WELL and like its potential. One comment over the past few quarters that I've heard by analysts is that stock based compensation (SBC) keeps increasing and is concerning. For its growth profile, is WELL's SBC a concern to you guys? Obviously getting heavily diluted impacts us shareholders. Just wondering at what level this becomes a red flag. Thx
5i Research Answer:
This is an issue for a lot of companies this year, and WELL is not unique. SBC was $20M last year. When a company is growing fast we can accept this, up to a point. WELL has a stock buyback in place, but to date has not really used it. We would like to see share buybacks to offset SBC when it has the available cash. But for now, considering its continued growth and need to attract employees in a tough labour environment, we can live with it.