Which companies pay the most in stock?
Paying employees in shares is a real cost that never touches the cash-flow line. It dilutes existing owners unless the company spends cash buying the shares back, so a business that looks very profitable on free cash flow can be less so for its shareholders.
Updated Sep 27, 2026
$230.2B paid in stock
Large S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 companies paid $230.2B in stock over the past year. The typical one pays 0.8% of revenue this way; 16 pay 10% or more, led by ZS.
By sector and over time
The typical stock pay in each sector. Select any company below to see its trend.
The 60 heaviest payers in stock
Ranked by stock pay as a share of revenue. The share of free cash flow shows how much of the cash generated stock pay quietly uses up. Select a column to sort.
| Company | Stock pay | % of revenue | A year | % of cash flow | Shares, 1Y | Sector | Stock pay, 3 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZS Zscaler | 100Heavy | 24.5% | $821.9M | 96% | +2.4% | Information Technology | |
| CRWD CrowdStrike | 100Heavy | 22.8% | $1.2B | 78% | +3.8% | Information Technology | |
| ARM Arm Holdings | 99Heavy | 22.4% | $1.2B | 78% | +1.2% | Information Technology | |
| DDOG Datadog | 99Heavy | 20.7% | $823.0M | 71% | +1.9% | Information Technology | |
| AXON Axon Enterprise | 99Heavy | 19.7% | $633.4M | 476% | +0.6% | Industrials | |
| COIN Coinbase | 99Heavy | 17.1% | $938.9M | 35% | −5.6% | Financials | |
| WDAY Workday, Inc. | 98Heavy | 16.2% | $1.6B | 58% | −7.4% | Information Technology | |
| MRNA Moderna | 98Heavy | 15.7% | $349.0M | – | +2.1% | Health Care | |
| TTD Trade Desk (The) | 98Heavy | 15.1% | $452.1M | 53% | −5.2% | Communication Services | |
| NOW ServiceNow | 98Heavy | 14.8% | $2.2B | 48% | −0.9% | Information Technology | |
| PLTR Palantir Technologies | 97Heavy | 13.6% | $835.5M | 25% | +0.3% | Information Technology | |
| ABNB Airbnb | 97Heavy | 12.9% | $1.7B | 35% | −4.6% | Consumer Discretionary | |
| AKAM Akamai Technologies | 97Heavy | 11.8% | $509.6M | 81% | +5.8% | Information Technology | |
| META Meta Platforms | 96Heavy | 11.0% | $25.1B | 61% | −0.2% | Communication Services | |
| INSM Insmed | 96Heavy | 10.4% | $118.4M | – | +14.8% | Health Care | |
| SNPS Synopsys | 96Heavy | 10.1% | $950.0M | 34% | +18.9% | Information Technology | |
| INTU Intuit | 96Heavy | 9.6% | $2.1B | 24% | −3.5% | Information Technology | |
| AVGO Broadcom | 95Heavy | 9.5% | $8.5B | 22% | +0.6% | Information Technology | |
| ADSK Autodesk | 95Heavy | 9.1% | $706.0M | 25% | −1.4% | Information Technology | |
| CDNS Cadence Design Systems | 95Heavy | 8.8% | $514.3M | 31% | +0.8% | Information Technology | |
| MRVL Marvell Technology | 95Heavy | 8.8% | $828.9M | 48% | +5.8% | Information Technology | |
| HOOD Robinhood Markets | 94Heavy | 8.4% | $351.0M | – | +0.4% | Financials | |
| EA Electronic Arts | 94Heavy | 8.4% | $657.0M | 32% | 0% | Communication Services | |
| CRM Salesforce | 94Heavy | 8.3% | $3.7B | 24% | −14.7% | Information Technology | |
| ORCL Oracle Corporation | 94Heavy | 8.3% | $6.0B | – | +3.1% | Information Technology | |
| ADBE Adobe Inc. | 93Heavy | 8.0% | $2.1B | 19% | −8.1% | Information Technology | |
| VEEV Veeva Systems | 93Heavy | 7.4% | $255.2M | 16% | −1.3% | Health Care | |
| QCOM Qualcomm | 93Heavy | 7.4% | $3.2B | 31% | −2.7% | Information Technology | |
| FICO Fair Isaac | 92Heavy | 7.3% | $174.3M | 17% | −7.6% | Information Technology | |
| DASH DoorDash | 92Heavy | 7.0% | $1.1B | 46% | +0.2% | Consumer Discretionary | |
| ALNY Alnylam Pharmaceuticals | 92Heavy | 7.0% | $336.6M | 62% | +6.6% | Health Care | |
| PANW Palo Alto Networks | 92Heavy | 6.6% | $761.0M | 17% | +7.8% | Information Technology | |
| TYL Tyler Technologies | 91Heavy | 6.4% | $156.1M | 22% | −4.7% | Information Technology | |
| REGN Regeneron Pharmaceuticals | 91Heavy | 6.4% | $986.7M | 28% | −1.7% | Health Care | |
| GOOGL Alphabet Inc. (Class A) | 91Heavy | 6.3% | $28.1B | 53% | +0.9% | Communication Services | |
| CSCO Cisco | 91Heavy | 6.3% | $4.0B | 29% | −0.1% | Information Technology | |
| PTC PTC Inc. | 90Heavy | 6.1% | $181.3M | 19% | −4.6% | Information Technology | |
| GDDY GoDaddy | 90Heavy | 5.9% | $301.9M | 18% | −7.4% | Information Technology | |
| SWKS Skyworks Solutions | 90Heavy | 5.8% | $232.4M | 118% | +0.3% | Information Technology | |
| LITE Lumentum | 89Heavy | 5.6% | $170.2M | 65% | +3.6% | Information Technology | |
| FFIV F5, Inc. | 89Heavy | 5.6% | $185.2M | 19% | −1.4% | Information Technology | |
| VRTX Vertex Pharmaceuticals | 89Heavy | 5.5% | $689.1M | 18% | −1.2% | Health Care | |
| MCHP Microchip Technology | 89Heavy | 5.4% | $277.5M | 25% | +2.1% | Information Technology | |
| EQIX Equinix | 88Heavy | 5.4% | $531.0M | 39% | +1.1% | Real Estate | |
| NTAP NetApp | 88Heavy | 5.4% | $397.0M | 24% | −1.5% | Information Technology | |
| TTWO Take-Two Interactive | 88Heavy | 5.2% | $350.6M | 108% | +3.0% | Communication Services | |
| FTNT Fortinet | 88Heavy | 4.9% | $369.2M | 9% | −4.3% | Information Technology | |
| XYZ Block, Inc. | 87Heavy | 4.8% | $1.2B | 31% | −1.6% | Financials | |
| ANET Arista Networks | 87Heavy | 4.8% | $502.3M | 10% | +0.3% | Information Technology | |
| AMD Advanced Micro Devices | 87Heavy | 4.6% | $1.9B | 23% | +1.5% | Information Technology | |
| ALGN Align Technology | 86Heavy | 4.5% | $185.9M | 25% | −1.3% | Health Care | |
| GEN Gen Digital | 86Heavy | 4.4% | $225.0M | 15% | −3.4% | Information Technology | |
| INTC Intel | 86Heavy | 4.2% | $2.4B | 85% | +16.8% | Information Technology | |
| APP AppLovin | 86Heavy | 4.1% | $282.4M | 6% | −1.3% | Information Technology | |
| EBAY eBay Inc. | 85Heavy | 4.0% | $485.0M | 20% | −2.8% | Consumer Discretionary | |
| MSFT Microsoft | 85Heavy | 3.7% | $12.4B | 19% | −0.1% | Information Technology | |
| TSLA Tesla, Inc. | 85Heavy | 3.7% | $3.8B | 66% | +0.6% | Consumer Discretionary | |
| MSCI MSCI Inc. | 85Heavy | 3.6% | $121.3M | 8% | −5.7% | Financials | |
| MCO Moody's Corporation | 84Heavy | 3.6% | $291.0M | 9% | −2.5% | Financials | |
| UBER Uber | 84Heavy | 3.5% | $1.9B | 19% | −3.5% | Industrials |
How to read this page
How it’s measured. Stock-based compensation over the last four reported quarters as a share of revenue, for S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 companies with at least $1 billion in revenue.
Sources. Company financial statements from Financial Modeling Prep.
Free cash flow adds stock pay back as a non-cash expense, so a company paying heavily in stock looks more cash-generative than its owners experience. The share-count column shows whether buybacks are keeping up.
Stock pay can align employees with owners; the question is its size. The score ranks it from 0 to 100, higher meaning more of revenue paid in stock.
This page is information, not investment advice. About our data and methods ›