STOCK-BASED COMPENSATION

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2017

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

STOCK-BASED COMPENSATION

12. STOCK-BASED COMPENSATION

The Company’s 2006 Long-Term Stock Incentive Plan and 2012 Long-Term Stock Incentive Plan allow 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, 2017, the total number of shares available for grant in all active plans was 678,951. There are no shares remaining for issuance with respect to stock option plans approved in 1995, 1998 and 2002; however, options granted under those 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. Some options granted to officers at or above the senior vice president level were immediately exercisable at 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 2017 were as follows:

						Weighted
				Weighted		Average		Aggregate
				Average		Remaining		Intrinsic
	Number of			Exercise		Contractual		Value
	Options			Price		Term		(In Thousands)
Balance, January 1, 2017		179,159		$	16.27
Granted during 2017		—			—
Exercised during 2017		(50,473	)		19.07
Expired during 2017		(7,722	)		26.90
Forfeited during 2017		(881	)		15.62
Balance, December 31, 2017		120,083		$	14.41		3.38 years	$	2,475
Vested and expected to vest		120,083		$	14.41		3.38 years	$	2,475
Exercisable at December 31, 2017		120,083		$	14.41		3.38 years	$	2,475

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 2017 and the exercise price, multiplied by the number of in-the-money options). The Company’s closing stock price on December 31, 2017 was $35.02.

There were no stock options granted in 2017.

As of December 31, 2017, 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 stock awards/units in 2017, 2016 and 2015. The stock awards were either service based awards or performance based awards. The service based awards vest ratably over a three or five-year period. The performance based awards that were granted in prior periods are dependent upon the Company meeting certain performance criteria and cliff vest at the end of the performance period. During the fourth quarter of 2015, the Company concluded that the performance targets for the 2014 and 2015 grants will no longer be met and therefore, reversed approximately $592 thousand of previously recorded expense for the performance awards. Total unrecognized compensation expense for performance based awards is $1.7 million as of December 31, 2017. The Company does not expect the performance based awards to vest.

As of December 31, 2017, there was $737 thousand of total unrecognized compensation cost related to service based awards. That cost is expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of 0.54 years. As of December 31, 2017, there was $3.6 million of total unrecognized compensation cost related to service based units. That cost is expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of 1.20 years. Total stock-based compensation expense recognized for stock awards/units totaled $3.5 million, $2.8 million and $1.5 million in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively, while total stock-based compensation expense recognized for stock options was $6 thousand, $56 thousand and $219 thousand for 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

Changes in non-vested shares dependent on performance criteria for 2017 were as follows:

			Weighted
			Average
	Number of		Grant Date
	Shares		Fair Value
Balance, January 1, 2017		92,767	$	18.12
Granted during 2017		—		—
Vested during 2017		—		—
Forfeited during 2017		—		—
Balance, December 31, 2017		92,767	$	18.12

Changes in service based restricted stock awards/units for 2017 were as follows:

				Weighted
				Average
	Number of			Grant Date
	Shares			Fair Value
Balance, January 1, 2017		368,130		$	19.26
Granted during 2017		136,708			30.13
Vested during 2017		(184,525	)		18.93
Forfeited during 2017		(11,688	)		27.59
Balance, December 31, 2017		308,625		$	23.96