[hogFeast]

But companies don't deduct stock-based comp from adjusted EPS? It is deducted for taxes, but not deducted when the board is setting targets...very selective definition of profit being used.

Btw, I did make a quick examination and some information is not accurate. For example, I knew that NKE don't have huge stock-based comp. The reason they paid no tax in 2020 was tax benefit from stock-based comp AND "Foreign-derived intangible income benefit". In 2019, they took most of their income overseas. Sometime in 2020, they stopped doing this. And in 2021, they paid $500m in income tax.

Interestingly, their effective tax rate actually fell even though they are now paying more income tax in the US (the tax-benefit from non-cash comp is now the more significant contributor to income-tax deductions, they are still gaining 370bps of effective income tax from IP shenanigans though...which is interesting given that this was supposed to have stopped from 2018).