Stock Warrant: What You Need to Know (2024)

A stock warrant grants the holder the optional right to purchase the issuer's stock at a predetermined price within a set time frame. Companies or other entities commonly issue warrants as a way to raise capital.

Stock warrants are an excellent way to attract top investors without diluting your company’s publicly traded shares. However, legal and financial implications surround them, including tax treatment, timing, and terms. A well-drafted stock warrant will protect your economic interests while ensuring that you present a sensible agreement to prospective investors

The article below outlines the least you should know about stock warrants:

What is a Stock Warrant?

Stock warrants are securities instruments issued by companies that trade on the stock exchange. The stock warrant holder, typically an investor, has the right to trade at a specific strike price before a previously agreed-upon expiration date. If the investor doesn’t exercise their stock warrant rights, they no longer have the right to use them.

Sometimes the term 'Stock warrants' also comes out as alien to many investors, but all seasoned investors are quite aware of the same. The similarity between a stock option and a stock warrant is that you get to take leverage of the price, but contrary to the stock options, a stock warrant is issued by the firm itself directly to the investor. Also, the stock warrants issued during the great recession became popular instruments.

There are three types of stock warrants:

• Call warrants
• Put warrants
• Sell warrants

All three types have expiration dates and strike prices. There are several degrees of value and risk, including traditional, naked, wedded, and covered warrants.

It’s worth noting that warrants do not imply actual stock ownership. Instead, they give investors the right to purchase them at the stated strike price in the future.

Types of Stock Warrants

Warrants are often used as a way for companies to raise capital or incentivize investors. There are three types of stock warrants in the USA, as follows:

• Call Warrants: It gives a right but no compulsion to buy an asset/assets at a predetermined rate within a particular time frame. One of the significant advantages of call warrants is that they expose investors to various price movements in the underlying asset, potentially allowing them to profit from price increases. Companies often use these warrants to sweeten debt or equity offerings, making them more attractive to investors.
• Put Warrants: In put shares, selling rights (not obligations) are provided to an investor wherein he can sell the particular asset at a price decided before. It also gives hedging benefits against falling stock prices. Put warrants can be used by individual investors looking to protect their portfolios and companies as part of their capital-raising strategies.
• Sell Warrants: This is also a type of stock warrant and is mostly used to raise capital. It gives the holder the right to sell the share at a given price to raise capital. Sell warrants can be an effective tool for capital infusion while offering shareholders the opportunity to participate in the offering on favorable terms.

How Do Stock Warrants Work?

Stock warrants give investors the right to purchase company stock at a future date. Essentially, you offer stock warrant shares to investors at a price much lower than the current market value. However, you do not issue the shares at the time of presenting the stock warrant.

Instead, your stock warrant acts as a promise to uphold the strike price upon the investor’s discretion to exercise their call rights. They must exercise their rights before the strike date for them to retain or generate value. Upon exercising these rights, the company holds a duty of honor and upholds the original agreement.

Examples of How Stock Warrants Work

The most practical way to understand how stock warrants work is through a concrete example as described below:

• Tena Co. trades stocks at $10 per share in January 2021
• Tena Co. lists the strike price at $15 per share, an expiration date of January 1, 2026, and a warrant price of $1
• Terry Blakely, an investor, receives 100 shares at the time of investing
• Terry decides to exercise their stock warrants at some point
• At the time of exercise, Tena’s stock is $15 per share
• Terry pays $100 to receive their 100 shares
• Terry’s stocks are worth $1,500 due to market value
• Terry’s net gains are $1,400
• All stock warrants that go unexercised after January 1, 2021 are no longer eligible for trades

What Happens When a Stock Warrant is Called?

A holder has the right to buy a stock at the strike price when a stock warrant is called. This outcome contrasts with another type of transaction where the stock warrant is sold at that same price. Sell warrants permit the holder to sell their stocks at the strike price if the market value falls below it.

Calling a stock warrant is a bit of a strategic decision on behalf of the holder. As company stock prices rise, so does the value of the stock warrant. However, investors must also consider the expiration date and timing of their call within that period.

Benefits of Stock Warrants

Stock warrants offer several potential benefits to both companies and investors. These include the following:

• Utilizes Capital Infusion: Firms utilize stock warrants as a means of raising capital by selling them to investors, resulting in an instant infusion of funds that can be allocated for diverse objectives, including funding research and development endeavors, venturing into new markets, or executing strategic acquisitions.
• Enhances Leverage: Warrants offer investors the advantage of increased leverage, enabling them to oversee a greater number of shares with a relatively modest initial investment. It heightened leverage potentialized gains in the event of a rising stock price, but it's important to note that it also escalates the risk of losses should the market trend unfavorably.
• Offers Price Appreciation: Warrants can offer potential gains as the underlying stock's price increases, allowing the purchase of shares at a discount to the market price, potentially resulting in substantial profits when exercised or sold in a rising market.
• Mitigates Risk: Warrants provide risk mitigation since investors aren't obligated to exercise them, limiting potential losses to the initial premium paid, which helps protect against downside risk in volatile markets.
• Increases Time Value: Warrants have an expiration date, and the time value increases as the underlying stock potentially appreciates over time, allowing investors to benefit from both short-term price movements and long-term capital appreciation.
• Helps Diversify Portfolio: Investors can diversify their portfolios by adding warrants, gaining exposure to a company's stock without a substantial capital commitment, thereby spreading risk across different asset classes and industries.
• Enables Strategic Investment: Holding a significant number of warrants can influence or control a company's decisions and management, enabling investors to actively participate in shaping the company's strategic direction and corporate governance.
• Uses Hedging: Warrants can be used to hedge against potential stock price declines, limiting losses if the stock falls below the warrant's strike price, making them a valuable risk management tool in uncertain market conditions.

Stock Warrants vs. Stock Options

Stock warrants are similar to stock options, but they differ in a few key ways. The most crucial difference between stock warrants and stock options is that the company issues stock warrants, while traders on the secondary market issue stock options.

Here are a few other key differences between stock warrants vs. stock options:

• Exchange: You may only trade existing market shares with stock options. When exchanged, the company doesn’t receive any proceeds from the transaction due to the lower strike price offered initially. However, the company didn’t have to dilute its shares, which lowers a stock’s value.
• Length: Stock warrants commonly last between five and fifteen years and can be better for long-term investments. Stock options typically exist for a few months or years, have more significant restrictions, and are better for short-term investments.
• Flexibility: Stock warrants offer more flexibility than stock options. The stock warrant covers an unlimited number of shares, while stock options have a set number of shares issued.
• Taxes: Stock options and stock warrants differ in their tax treatment. Unlike stock options, stock warrants do not offer preferential tax treatments. Exercising stock warrants results in taxable income that amounts to the difference between the strike price and the share price, minus the cost basis.

When are Stock Warrants Used?

Companies generally offer stock warrants as a way to raise capital without reducing the value of their shares. However, they may offer them to investors for a variety of other reasons. Offering company stock at a discount can increase reliability without hurting the company’s bottom line.

Stock warrants are similar to restricted stock in the sense that they are often vested . Companies can offer investors stock warrants, restricted stock units, or a combination of the two. The strategy you implement will depend upon your industry, products or services, target market, and current market conditions.

When to Exercise Stock Warrants

The best strategy for exercising warrants is waiting until the company is financially stable and shortly after that. Doing so allows you to treat the income as long-term capital gains. If the company gets bought after exercise, investors could be looking at higher taxes that were previously avoidable.

Taxes & Stock Warrants – What to Know

It is normal for companies to offer stock warrants to attract new investors. However, it’s essential to keep in mind that they are taxed in the same manner as if they had received a stock option. Many investors fail to make this distinction, which can result in confusion and frustration down the road.

Consider the following if you receive or offer stock warrants to investors:

• The warrant’s exercise price should be equal to fair market value (FMV) on the date of grant to avoid Section 409A taxes
• FMV excess is taxed like regular income when exercising the warrant.
• Investors need to withhold income and employment tax at the time of exercise

Another example can help us pull this concept into closer focus:

Example of Taxes & Stock Warrants

Let’s pretend that your company offered an investor 50 warrant stocks for $500. If that investor exercises a warrant with a strike price of $50 per share, then their total investment is $3,000. The market’s price on the exercise day is $75, which means that shares are now worth $3,750.

The difference is $750. Since the investor didn’t own the stock before exercising the warrants, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) treats the amount as ordinary income rather than a long-term capital gains tax. The tax implications surrounding stock warrants should be discussed with a legal professional.

Final Thoughts on Stock Warrants

Stock warrants are great investments only if you are careful enough with the position sizes and know how the leverage you seek out of the stock warrant can go to nil in a flash. Though these warrants are not as popular in the U.S. as once, one gets a sense of control with warrants on other shares, unlike options. Consider a bull market (when the price of security is showing to go up) when purchasing stock warrants, as that will prove to be the most beneficial. Also, warrants have an expiration date much longer than a stock option, proving them a safe and profitable investment.

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