Employee Incentive Plans

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2021

The Company’s 2014 Equity Incentive Plan (EIP) provides for granting awards, including restricted stock units (RSUs), performance-based restricted stock units (PBRSUs) and stock options to employees, officers and directors.

Stock-based Compensation

Stock-based compensation expense, included in “Compensation and benefits” expense on the Company’s Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations, was as follows for the periods presented:


	Three Months Ended September 30,				Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2021		2020		2021		2020
RSUs and PBRSUs	$	16,691	$	14,986	$	49,130	$	46,667
Stock options	118		136		582		788



Total stock-based compensation expense	$	16,809	$	15,122	$	49,712	$	47,455

The Company capitalized $1.2 million and $3.3 million of stock-based compensation expense associated with developing software for internal use during the third quarter and first nine months of 2021, respectively. The Company capitalized $1.2 million and $4.0 million of stock-based compensation expense associated with developing software for internal use during the third quarter and first nine months of 2020, respectively.

Restricted Stock Units

The following table summarizes the activities for the Company’s RSUs during the first nine months of 2021:


	Number of Units	Weighted- Average Grant Date Fair Value
Unvested at December 31, 2020	11,395,112	$	11.26
Granted	5,494,222	$	13.47
Vested	(3,800,624)	$	12.06
Forfeited/expired	(2,082,511)	$	11.94
Unvested at September 30, 2021	11,006,199	$	11.97

During the first nine months of 2021, the Company granted 5,494,222 RSUs with an aggregate fair value of $74.0 million.

As of September 30, 2021, there was $122.2 million of unrecognized compensation cost related to unvested RSUs, which is expected to be recognized over the next 2.3 years.

Performance-based Restricted Stock Units

PBRSUs are restricted stock unit awards that are earned and eligible for vesting (if applicable) based upon the achievement of certain pre-established performance metrics over a specific performance period. The Company’s PBRSU awards have a separate market-based component and/or a performance-based component. Certain of the Company’s PBRSU awards have additional time-based vesting for any earned shares. With respect to PBRSU awards with market-based metrics, the compensation expense of the award is fixed at the time of grant (incorporating the probability of achieving the market-based metrics), not adjusted for actual performance and expensed over the performance and vesting period. With respect to PBRSU awards with performance-based metrics, the compensation expense of the award is set at the time of grant (assuming a target level of achievement), adjusted for actual performance during the performance period and expensed over the performance and vesting period.

The following table summarizes the activities for the Company’s PBRSUs during the first nine months of 2021:


	Number of Units	Weighted- Average Grant Date Fair Value
Unvested at December 31, 2020	1,441,311	$	5.31
Granted	568,285	$	22.54
Vested	(60,848)	$	22.59
Forfeited/expired	(158,123)	$	12.41
Unvested at September 30, 2021	1,790,625	$	9.86

During the third quarter and first nine months of 2021, the Company recognized $1.6 million and $5.1 million in stock-based compensation expense related to PBRSUs, respectively. During the third quarter and first nine months of 2020, the Company recognized $0.7 million and $1.8 million in stock-based compensation expense related to PBRSUs, respectively.

As of September 30, 2021, there was $12.4 million of unrecognized compensation cost related to unvested PBRSUs, which is expected to be recognized over the next 1.7 years.