The Company’s 2021 Long-Term Stock Incentive Plan allows the granting of shares of the Company’s common stock as incentive stock options, nonqualified stock options, restricted stock awards, restricted stock units and stock appreciation rights to directors, officers and employees of the Company and its subsidiaries. As of December 31, 2023, the total number of shares available for grant in all active plans was 809,502. There are no shares remaining for issuance with respect to the stock option plans approved in 2006 and 2012; however, options granted under these plans are still included in the numbers below.

Options granted under the stock incentive plans are, in general, exercisable not earlier than one year after the date of grant, at a price equal to the fair value of the common stock on the date of grant and expire not more than ten years after the date of grant. Stock options may vest during a period of up to five years after the date of grant. The Company has a policy of using authorized but unissued shares to satisfy option exercises.

Upon adoption of Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2016-09, “Compensation - Stock Compensation (Topic 718), Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting,” the Company has elected to account for forfeitures as they occur, rather than estimate expected forfeitures.

Changes in options outstanding during 2023 were as follows:


						Weighted
				Weighted		Average	Aggregate
				Average		Remaining	Intrinsic
	Number of			Exercise		Contractual	Value
	Options			Price		Term	(In Thousands)
Balance, January 1, 2023		6,800		$	16.53
Exercised during 2023		(2,600	)		16.76
Expired during 2023		(2,600	)		14.85
Forfeited during 2023		(200	)		17.14
Balance, December 31, 2023		1,400		$	19.15	0.01 years	$	15
Vested and expected to vest		1,400		$	19.15	0.01 years	$	15
Exercisable at December 31, 2023		1,400		$	19.15	0.01 years	$	15

The aggregate intrinsic value in the table above represents the total pre-tax intrinsic value (the difference between the Company’s closing stock price on the last trading day of 2023 and the exercise price, multiplied by the number of in-the-money options). The Company’s closing stock price on December 31, 2023 was $29.82.

As of December 31, 2023, there was no unrecognized compensation cost related to non-vested share-based compensation arrangements granted under the Company’s stock incentive plans.

The Company issued service-based and performance-based restricted stock units in 2023, 2022 and 2021. Service-based units vest ratably over a three- or five-year period. There were 271,387 service-based restricted stock units granted during 2023.

The performance-based awards are dependent upon the Company meeting certain performance criteria and, to the extent the performance criteria are met, will cliff vest at the end of the performance period, which is generally three years. There were 126,821 performance-based restricted units granted during 2023.

As of December 31, 2023, there was $14.9 million of total unrecognized compensation cost related to both service- and performance-based units. That cost is expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of 1.18 years. Total stock-based compensation expense recognized for stock awards/units totaled $10.7 million, $7.8 million and $7.1 million in 2023,

2022 and 2021, respectively. There was no stock-based compensation expense related to stock options for the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively.

Changes in non-vested shares dependent on performance criteria for 2023 were as follows:


				Weighted
				Average
	Number of			Grant Date
	Shares			Fair Value
Balance, January 1, 2023		233,556		$	23.77
Granted during 2023		126,821			26.81
Vested during 2023		(183,766	)		17.60
Forfeited during 2023		(247	)		13.44
Balance, December 31, 2023		176,364		$	32.40

Changes in service based restricted stock units for 2023 were as follows:


				Weighted
				Average
	Number of			Grant Date
	Shares			Fair Value
Balance, January 1, 2023		621,170		$	27.50
Granted during 2023		271,387			30.94
Vested during 2023		(250,234	)		25.92
Forfeited during 2023		(15,581	)		27.50
Balance, December 31, 2023		626,742		$	29.62