SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2018

9.	SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY:

Common and Preferred Stock

On June 21, 2018, the Company’s shareholders approved an amendment to the Company’s Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation to increase the number of authorized shares of the Company’s common stock from 100,000,000 to 200,000,000. The amendment was filed with the Pennsylvania Department of State, and became effective on July 17, 2018.

The Company is authorized to issue 200 million shares of $0.01 par value common stock and five million shares of $0.01 par value preferred stock. Each share of the Company’s common stock entitles the holder to one vote on all matters to be voted upon by the shareholders. As of June 30, 2018, the Company had issued 48,650,696 shares of common stock of which 47,289,059 were outstanding and had issued 200,000 shares of preferred stock, all of which were outstanding. During the three months ended June 30, 2018, the Company repurchased no shares and during the six months ended June 30, 2018, the Company repurchased 3,774 shares of $0.01 par value common treasury stock valued at $477,000.

Scientific Advisory Board and Employee Awards

During the first two quarters of 2018 and 2017, the Company granted a total of 2,456 and 5,590 shares, respectively, of fully vested common stock to employees and non-employee members of the Scientific Advisory Board for services performed in 2017 and 2016, respectively. The fair value of shares issued to members of the Scientific Advisory Board was $300,000 for both of the first two quarters of 2018 and 2017. No fully vested common stock was issued to employees during the first quarter of 2018 and the fair value of the shares issued to employees during the first quarter of 2017 was $165,000. In connection with the issuance of these employee grants during the first quarter of 2017, 605 shares, with fair value of $55,000, were withheld in satisfaction of employee tax withholding obligations.

Dividends

During the three months ended June 30, 2018, the Company declared and paid cash dividends of $0.06 per common share, or $2.8 million, and during the six months ended June 30, 2018, the Company declared and paid cash dividends of $0.12 per common share, or $5.7 million, on the Company’s outstanding common stock.

On August 9, 2018, the Company’s Board of Directors declared a third quarter dividend of $0.06 per common share to be paid on September 28, 2018. All future dividends will be subject to the approval of the Company’s Board of Directors.