Benefit Plans

Retirement Plan

The Company provides a defined contribution employee benefit plan (401(k) plan) covering full-time employees, whereby employees can invest up to the maximum designated for that year. The Company makes a matching contribution equal to 50% of the employees' contributions for the first 6% of gross pay. The Company's expense under this plan was $1,453,468, $1,470,600 and $1,483,712, for the years ended March 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively.

Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan

The Company has instituted a Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan (“SERP”), which is a non-qualified executive benefit plan in which the Company agrees to pay the executive additional benefits in the future, usually at retirement, in return for continued employment by the executive. The SERP is an unfunded plan, and as such, there are no specific assets set aside by the Company in connection with the establishment of the plan. The executive has no rights under the agreement beyond those of a general creditor of the Company. In May 2009 the Company instituted a second Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan to provide to one executive the same type of benefits as are in the original SERP but for which he would not have qualified due to age. This second SERP is also an unfunded plan with no specific assets set aside by the Company in connection with the plan. For the years ended March 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014, contributions of $1,796,998, $642,710 and $909,466, respectively, were charged to expense related to the SERP. The expense for the year ended March 31, 2014 was offset by the reversal of $904,138 of expense accrued for two executives who resigned during the year. The unfunded liability was $8,886,195, $7,516,249 and $7,186,076, as of March 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively.

For the three years presented, the unfunded liability was estimated using the following assumptions: an annual salary increase of 3.5% for all 3 years; a discount rate of 6.0% for all 3 years; and a retirement age of 65.

Executive Deferred Compensation Plan

The Company has an Executive Deferral Plan. Eligible executives and directors may elect to defer all or a portion of their incentive compensation to be paid under the Executive Deferral Plan. As of March 31, 2016 and 2015 no executive had deferred compensation under this plan.

Stock Option Plans

The Company has a 2002 Stock Option Plan, a 2005 Stock Option Plan, a 2008 Stock Option Plan, and a 2011 Stock Option Plan for the benefit of certain directors, officers, and key employees. Under these plans, a total of 4,100,000 shares of authorized common stock have been reserved for issuance pursuant to grants approved by the Compensation and Stock Option Committee of the Board of Directors. Stock options granted under these plans have a maximum duration of ten years, may be subject to certain vesting requirements, which are generally five years for officers, directors, and key employees, and are priced at the market value of the Company's common stock on the grant date of the option. At March 31, 2016 there were a total of 444,251 shares available for grant under the plans.

Stock-based compensation is recognized as provided under FASB ASC Topic 718-10 and FASB ASC Topic 505-50. FASB ASC Topic 718-10 requires all share-based payments to employees, including grants of employee stock options, to be recognized as compensation expense over the requisite service period (generally the vesting period) in the consolidated financial statements based on their grant date fair values. The impact of forfeitures that may occur prior to vesting is also estimated and considered in the amount recognized. The Company has applied the Black-Scholes valuation model in determining the grant date fair value of the stock option awards. Compensation expense is recognized only for those options expected to vest, with forfeitures estimated based on historical experience and future expectations.

The weighted-average fair value at the grant date for options issued during the years ended March 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014 was $10.82, $34.50 and $43.80 per share, respectively. This fair value was estimated at grant date using the weighted-average assumptions listed below.



	2016		2015		2014
Dividend yield	0	%	0	%	0	%
Expected volatility	41.41	%	44.62	%	53.91	%
Average risk-free interest rate	1.38	%	1.77	%	1.51	%
Expected life	5.0 years		6.1 years		5.4 years

The expected stock price volatility is based on the historical volatility of the Company’s stock for a period approximating the expected life. The expected life represents the period of time that options are expected to be outstanding after the grant date. The risk-free rate reflects the interest rate at grant date on zero coupon U.S. governmental bonds having a remaining life similar to the expected option term.

Option activity for the year ended March 31, 2016 was as follows:



	Shares		Weighted Average Exercise Price		Weighted Average Remaining Contractual Term	Aggregate Intrinsic Value
Options outstanding, beginning of year	1,083,767		$	69.15
Granted	112,400		28.45
Exercised	(89,403	)	38.09
Forfeited	(129,741	)	72.44
Expired	(26,372	)	55.00
Options outstanding, end of period	950,651		$	67.20	7.04	$	1,518,235
Options exercisable, end of period	450,917		$	67.96	6.02	$	349,963

The aggregate intrinsic value reflected in the table above represents the total pre-tax intrinsic value (the difference between the closing stock price on March 31, 2016 and the exercise price, multiplied by the number of in-the-money options) that would have been received by option holders had all option holders exercised their options as of March 31, 2016. This amount will change as the stock's market price changes. The total intrinsic value of options exercised during the periods ended March 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014 was as follows:



2016	2015	2014
$2,445,011	$6,454,022	$13,844,546

As of March 31, 2016, total unrecognized stock-based compensation expense related to non-vested stock options amounted to approximately $9.8 million, which is expected to be recognized over a weighted-average period of approximately 2.5 years.

Restricted Stock

During fiscal 2016, the Company granted 69,950 shares of restricted stock (which are equity classified), to certain executive officers, with a grant date weighted average fair value of $28.11. One-third of these awards will vest on each anniversary of the grant date over the next three years.

During Fiscal 2014 and 2013 the Company granted 8,590 and 70,800 Group A performance based restricted stock awards to certain officers. Group A awards vested on April 30, 2015 based on the Company's achievement of the following performance goals as of March 31, 2015:



EPS Target		Restricted Shares Eligible for Vesting (Percentage of Award)
$10.29		100%
$9.76		67%
$9.26		33%
Below $9.26		0%

During Fiscal 2014 and 2013 the Company granted 56,660 and 443,700 Group B performance based restricted stock awards to certain officers. As of March 31, 2016 26,000 remain unvested and unforfeited. Group B awards will vest as follows, if the Company achieves the following performance goals during any successive trailing four quarters during the measurement period ending on March 31, 2017:



Trailing 4 quarter EPS Target		Restricted Shares Eligible for Vesting (Percentage of Award)
$13.00		25%
$14.50		25%
$16.00		25%
$18.00		25%

The Company determined that the the earnings per share targets associated with the Group B stock awards were not achievable during the measurement period which ends on March 31, 2017. Subsequently, the Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors amended the awards allowing 25% of the Group B awards to vest for certain officers. The officers were required to forfeit their remaining Group B shares as a part of the amendment. FASB Topic ASC 718 defines a grant modification as a change in any of the terms or conditions of a stock-based compensation award to include accelerated vesting. The Company determined that since the Group B awards would not have otherwise vested pre-modification, the accelerated vesting qualified as a Type III modification. The Company released approximately $9.7 million of compensation expense, including $2.9 million related to the Type III modification, during the year ended March 31, 2016 associated with the Group B awards.

Compensation expense related to restricted stock is based on the number of shares expected to vest and the fair market value of the common stock on the grant date. The Company recognized a net reduction in compensation expense of $8.0 million, and compensation expense of $8.1 million and $6.0 million for the years ended March 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively, which is included as a component of general and administrative expenses in the Company's Consolidated Statements of Operations.

As of March 31, 2016, there was approximately $1.4 million of unrecognized compensation cost related to unvested restricted stock awards, which is expected to be recognized over the next 2.5 years based on current estimates. In addition there was approximately $1.9 million of unrecognized compensation cost related to unvested performance-based restricted stock awards, which are not expected to vest based on current estimates. If these estimates change the $1.9 million could be expensed, accordingly, in future periods.

A summary of the status of the Company’s restricted stock as of March 31, 2016 and changes during the year ended March 31, 2016, are presented below:



	Shares		Weighted Average Fair Value at Grant Date
Outstanding at March 31, 2015	433,750		$	76.84
Granted during the period	69,950		28.11
Vested during the period	(133,580	)	77.10
Forfeited during the period	(276,570	)	76.55
Outstanding at March 31, 2016	93,550		$	40.92

Total share-based compensation included as a component of net income during the years ended March 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014 was as follows:



	2016			2015	2014
Share-based compensation related to equity classified units:
Share-based compensation related to stock options	$	3,965,463		8,133,812	9,678,724
Share-based compensation related to restricted stock	(8,033,213		)	8,138,643	6,026,553
Total share-based compensation related to equity classified awards	$	(4,067,750	)	16,272,455	15,705,277