Yes.<p>Except since it is the company issuing stock in itself you can&#x27;t really think of it as fungible. If it ends up being worth more than the strike price then literally one of the events that led to that price was the purchase stock being issued. Of course that doesn&#x27;t mean the is a causal link, but in a very real sense the stock was free for the company itself.<p>The only cost to the company is opportunity cost.