Stock Based Compensation

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2013

Stock Based Compensation [Abstract]

Stock Based Compensation

NOTE 14: STOCK BASED COMPENSATION

The Company adopted and, at the annual meeting held on April 29, 2011, its shareholders approved, the Amended and Restated 2008 Long-Term Incentive Plan (the "Amended and Restated LTIP") to assist the Company and its affiliates in attracting, motivating and retaining selected individuals to serve as employees, directors, consultants and advisors of the Company and its affiliates by providing incentives to such individuals through the ownership and performance of the Company's common stock. The Amended and Restated LTIP increased the total number of shares authorized under the Amended and Restated LTIP from 500,000 shares to 1,100,000 shares of common stock. The increases in the number of shares available under the Amended and Restated LTIP required approval from the New York Public Service Commission ("NYPSC") and New Jersey Board of Public Utilities ("NJBPU"). As of March 31, 2012, the Company received approval from both the NYPSC and the NJBPU. Shares available for grant under the Amended and Restated LTIP may be either authorized but unissued shares or shares that have been reacquired by the Company and designated as treasury shares. As of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, 24,523 and 675,956 shares, respectively, of the Company's common stock were available for grant under the Amended and Restated LTIP. The Amended and Restated LTIP permits the issuance by the Company of awards in the form of stock options, stock appreciation rights, restricted stock and restricted stock units and performance shares. The exercise price per share of the Company's common stock purchasable under any stock option or stock appreciation right may not be less than 100% of the fair market value of one share of common stock on the date of grant. The term of any stock option or stock appreciation may not exceed ten years. The Amended and Restated LTIP also provides plan participants with a cashless mechanism to exercise their stock options. Issued restricted stock, stock options and restricted stock units are subject to vesting restrictions.

Restricted Stock Awards

Stock-based compensation expense for restricted stock awards of $0.2 million was recorded in both the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012. Restricted stock awards have grated vesting schedules and are amortized over their respective vesting periods of two or three years. The Company records stock-based compensation for grants of restricted stock awards on a straight-line basis over the requisite service period for the entire award. The Company has determined expected forfeitures based on recent activity and is recognizing compensation expense only for those restricted common stock awards expected to vest.

The following table summarizes the restricted common stock activity during the period ended March 31, 2013:

	March 31, 2013
				Weighted
				Average Fair
	Shares			Value
Balance - nonvested at January 1, 2013	59,078		$	14.10
Granted	404,932			10.21
Vested	(18,788	)		13.79
Forfeited	(19,974	)		14.64
Balance - nonvested at March 31, 2013	425,248		$	10.38

The total fair value of restricted stock awards that vested during the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012 was $0.3 million and $0.4 million, respectively. As of March 31, 2013, $4.4 million of total unrecognized compensation expense related to restricted common stock is expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of approximately 3 years.

Stock Options

The following tables summarize stock option activity for the three month period ended March 31, 2013, along with options exercisable at the end of the period:

				For the three months ended
				March 31, 2013
				Weighted	Weighted
				Average	Average	Aggregate
				Exercise	Contractual	Intrinsic
Options	Shares			Price	Life (Years)	Value
Outstanding - Beginning of period	263,554		$	14.02
Stock options granted	395,875			10.11
Exercised	-			-
Forfeited	(123,703	)		14.34
Outstanding - End of period	535,726		$	11.06	9	-
Vested and Expected to Vest at March 31	535,726					-
Exercisable at March 31	102,611					-

The aggregate intrinsic value in the table above represents the total pretax intrinsic value (the difference between the Company's closing stock price on the last trading day, March 31, 2013, and the exercise price times the number of shares) that would have been received by the option holders had all the option holders exercised in the money options on March 31, 2012. This amount changes based on the fair market value of the Company's common stock.

The fair value of the stock-based awards was estimated using the Black-Scholes model with the following weighted-average assumptions for the three months ended March 31, 2013:

Expected life (in years)		6
Interest rate		1.08	%
Volatility		29.61	%
Dividend yield		10.63	%
Weighted-average fair value per share at grant date	$	0.63

The following table sets forth the total stock-based compensation expense resulting from stock options and restricted stock granted to employees that are included in the Company's consolidated statements of income for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012:

($ in thousands)
Stock-Based Compensation Expense		March 31, 2013		March 31, 2012
Cost of services and products	$	3	$	10
Selling, general and administrative expense		215		182
Total stock-based compensation expense	$	218	$	192

As of March 31, 2013, $0.4 million of total unrecognized compensation expense related to stock options is expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of approximately 3 years.