STOCK AWARD PLANS (Tables)

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2017

Disclosure of Compensation Related Costs, Share-based Payments [Abstract]

Schedule of Employee Service Share-based Compensation, Allocation of Recognized Period Costs

A summary of our total compensation expense recognized in our condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income for stock-based compensation is as follows (in thousands):

	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2017		2016
Stock options	$	3,002	$	3,337
Stock awards	8,410		10,840
Company expense on ESPP discount	906		1,002
Total stock-based compensation expense	$	12,318	$	15,179

Schedule of Share-based Compensation, Employee Stock Purchase Plan, Activity

The following is a summary of the employee stock purchase plan activity (dollar amounts in thousands):

Three Months Ended March 31, 2017
Shares purchased by employees	Aggregate cost to employees		Expense recognized by the company
78,180	$	5,136	$	906