Stock Based Compensation

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2011

Stock Based Compensation [Abstract]

Stock Based Compensation

NOTE 17: 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 increases the total number of shares authorized under the Amended and Restated LTIP from 500,000 shares to 1,100,000 shares of common stock and is subject to receiving approval from the PSC and the BPU. 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 September 30, 2011, 134,095 shares of 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. As of September 30, 2011, the Company purchasedtreasury stock of $1,477 as a result of plan participants using the cashless mechanism when exercising stock options. Issued restricted stock, stock options and restricted stock units are subject to vesting restrictions.

Restricted Common Stock Awards

The following table summarizes the restricted common stock activity with certain eligible participants during the nine months ended September 30, 2011:

				Grant Date
	Date Issued	Shares		Fair Value per Share
Restricted stock granted	1/6/2011	10,573	$	14.16
Restricted stock granted	2/25/2011	19,861	$	14.70
Restricted stock granted	3/9/2011	25,542	$	14.85
Restricted stock granted	4/29/2011	200	$	15.00
Restricted stock granted	6/15/2011	2,500	$	14.80
Restricted stock granted	8/3/2011	217	$	13.92
Restricted stock granted	8/8/2011	2,000	$	13.65
Forfeited		(29)	$	12.78
Total restricted stock granted		60,864

Stock-based compensation expense for restricted stock awards was $578 and $200 for the nine months ended September 30, 2011 and 2010, respectively, and $130and $71 for in the three months ended September 30, 2011 and 2010, respectively. Restricted stock awards 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. The Company has determined expected forfeitures based on recent activity and is recognizing compensation expense only for those restricted common shares expected to vest.

The following table summarizes the restricted common stock activity during the nine-month periods ended September 30, 2011 and 2010:

	2011			2010
			Grant Date Weighted Average Price per Share			Grant Date Weighted Average Price per Share
Unvested Shares	Shares			Shares
Balance - Beginning of period	47,373	$	12.64	21,626	$	11.03
Granted	60,893		14.64	35,004		13.22
Vested	(37,052)		13.05	(7,346)		10.69
Forfeited	(29)		12.78	(300)		12.78
Balance - End of period	71,185	$	14.13	48,984	$	12.65

The total fair value of restricted stock vested during the nine-month periods ended September 30, 2011 and 2010 was $484 and $78, respectively.

Stock Options

The following tables summarize stock option activity for the nine-month periods ended September 30, 2011 and 2010, along with stock options exercisable at the end of the period:

	2011			2010
Options	Shares		Weighted Average Exercise Price	Shares		Weighted Average Exercise Price
Outstanding - beginning of period	160,733	$	11.33	123,631	$	10.76
Stock options granted	148,381		14.83	43,768		12.88
Exercised	(103,319)		11.01	(3,333)		10.78
Forfeited	0		0.00	0		0.00
Outstanding - end of period	205,795	$	13.89	164,066	$	11.31
Vested and expected to vest at September 30	205,795			164,066
Exercisable at September 30	70,740			63,155

Stock options vest over a three-year period. The following table summarizes information about fixed-price stock options outstanding at September 30, 2011:

			Weighted	Weighted Average
			Average	Remaining		Aggregate
	Shares		Exercise	Contractual		Instrinsic
Exercise Price Per Share	Outstanding		Price	Life (Years)		Value
$10.78	15,166	$	10.78	6.9		29
$10.02	4,051		10.02	7.4		11
$11.20	7,517		11.20	7.5		11
$12.97	7,000		12.97	8.1		0
$12.76	1,000		12.76	8.2		0
$12.88	22,680		12.88	8.5		0
$14.70	19,761		14.70	9.4		0
$14.85	128,620		14.85	9.4		0
	205,795	$	11.31	9.0	$	51
Exercisable at September 30, 2011	70,740	$	13.58	8.3	$	0

Stock-based compensation expense for stock option awards was $243 and $52 for the nine months ended September 30, 2011 and 2010, respectively, and $65 and $17 for the three months ended September 30, 2011 and 2010, respectively.

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, September 30, 2011, 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 stock options on September 30, 2011. This amount changes based on the fair market value of the Company's common stock.

The fair value of the above stock-based option awards was estimated using the Black-Scholes model with the following weighted-average assumptions for the nine months ended September 30, 2011 and 2010:

Options		2011		2010
Expected life (in years)		10		10
Interest rate		3.40%		3.78%
Volatility		32.77%		31.70%
Dividend yield		7.00%		6.83%
Weighted-average fair value per share at grant date	$	2.16	$	1.92

The following table sets forth the total stock-based compensation expense resulting from stock options and restricted stock granted to employees, as well as the effects of the acceleration of the vesting of stock options and restricted stock which had been granted to the former Chief Financial Officer in the amount of $345, which are included in the Company's consolidated statements of income for the three and nine month periods ended September 30, 2011:

		Three Months				Nine Months
Stock-Based Compensation Expense		2011		2010		2011		2010
Cost of services and products	$	17	$	1	$	51	$	4
Selling, general and administrative expenses		178		87		770		248
	$	195	$	88	$	821	$	252

As of September 30, 2011, $915 of total unrecognized compensation expense related to stock options and restricted common stock is expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of approximately 1.3 years.