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Summary of Significant Accounting Policies (Policies)
9 Months Ended
Sep. 27, 2014
Accounting Policies [Abstract]  
Fair Value of Financial Instruments
The Company applies fair value accounting guidelines for all financial assets and liabilities and non-financial assets and liabilities that are recognized or disclosed at fair value in the financial statements on a recurring basis (at least annually). Under these guidelines, fair value is defined as the price that would be received for the sale of an asset or paid to transfer a liability (i.e. an exit price) in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. The guidance establishes a three-tier fair value hierarchy which prioritizes the inputs used in measuring fair value as follows:
Level 1 - Quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities.
Level 2 - Observable inputs other than quoted prices included in Level 1, such as quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities in active markets or quoted prices for identical assets or liabilities in inactive markets.
Level 3 - Unobservable inputs that are supported by little, infrequent, or no market activity and reflect the Company’s own assumptions about inputs used in pricing the asset or liability.
The fair value hierarchy also requires an entity to maximize the use of observable inputs and minimize the use of unobservable inputs when measuring fair value.
The Company’s valuation techniques used to measure the fair value of marketable equity securities, mutual funds, and phantom stock units were derived from quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities. The valuation techniques used to measure the fair value of all other financial instruments were valued based on quoted market prices or model driven valuations using significant inputs derived from or corroborated by observable market data.
The Company’s short-term investments have been classified and accounted for as available-for-sale. Management determines the appropriate classification of its investments at the time of purchase and reevaluates the designation at each balance sheet date. The Company may or may not hold securities with stated maturities greater than 12 months until maturity. As management views these securities as available to support current operations, the Company classifies securities with maturities beyond 12 months as current assets under the caption short-term investments in the accompanying Consolidated Balance Sheets. These investments are carried at fair value, with the unrealized gains and losses reported as a component of shareholder’s equity. Realized gains and losses on sales of investments are generally determined using the specific identification method, and are included in miscellaneous (income) expense in the Consolidated Statements of Operations.