In a grant of performance shares, the number of shares that will be issued or vested when the performance goal is reached. Some plans' performance share grants have a sliding scale for target awards (e.g. 0%–200%). This ensures that even if the goal is not met, some percentage of the target number of shares may still be received; conversely, it provides that when the goal is exceeded, the grant will be bigger than the target. These awards pay out at threshold, target, and maximum levels. For details on performance share grants, see the section Performance Shares.