Note 6 - Employee Stock Benefit Plans

9 Months Ended

Sep. 24, 2022

Notes to Financial Statements

Share-Based Payment Arrangement [Text Block]

6. Employee Stock Benefit Plans

Our 2005 Equity Incentive Plan (“2005 Plan”) is a broad-based, long-term retention program intended to attract, motivate, and retain talented employees as well as align stockholder and employee interests. Awards that may be granted under the program include, but are not limited to, non-qualified and incentive stock options, restricted stock units, and performance stock units. We settle employee stock option exercises, employee stock purchase plan purchases, and the vesting of restricted stock units, and performance stock units with newly issued common shares. At September 24, 2022, there were 899,307 shares available for future equity grants under the 2005 Plan.

Stock Options

Stock options may be granted to employees, consultants and non-employee directors to purchase a fixed number of shares of our common stock. The exercise prices of options granted are at least equal to the fair market value of our common stock on the dates of grant and options vest and become exercisable in annual increments that range from one to four years from the date of grant. Stock options granted under the 2005 Plan have a maximum contractual term of ten years. In the first nine months of fiscal 2022, we did not grant any stock options and we issued 12,442 shares of our common stock on the exercise of options that were granted previously. At September 24, 2022, we had no stock options exercisable and outstanding.

Restricted Stock Units

We grant restricted stock units (“RSUs”) to certain employees, consultants and directors. RSUs vest in annual increments that range from one to four years from the date of grant. Prior to vesting, RSUs do not have dividend equivalent rights, do not have voting rights and the shares underlying the RSUs are not considered issued and outstanding. New shares of our common stock will be issued on the date the RSUs vest net of the minimum statutory tax withholding requirements to be paid by us on behalf of our employees. As a result, the actual number of shares issued will be fewer than the actual number of RSUs outstanding at September 24, 2022.

In the first nine months of fiscal 2022, we awarded 422,211 RSUs and issued 465,664 shares of our common stock on vesting of previously granted awards and 28,436 shares were forfeited. At September 24, 2022, we had 985,919 RSUs outstanding with an aggregate intrinsic value of approximately $25.7 million and the weighted average remaining vesting period was approximately 1.3 years.

Performance Stock Units

We also grant performance stock units (“PSUs”) to senior executives as a part of our long-term equity compensation program. The number of shares of common stock that will ultimately be issued to settle PSUs granted ranges from 0% to 200% of the number granted and is determined based on certain performance criteria over a three-year measurement period. The performance criteria for the PSUs are based on a combination of our annualized Total Shareholder Return (“TSR”) for the performance period and the relative performance of our TSR compared with the annualized TSR of certain peer companies or index for the performance period. PSUs granted vest 100% on the third anniversary of their grant, assuming achievement of the applicable performance criteria.

We estimated the fair value of the PSUs using a Monte Carlo simulation model on the date of grant. Compensation expense is recognized ratably over the explicit service period. New shares of our common stock will be issued on the date the PSUs vest net of the minimum statutory tax withholding requirements to be paid by us on behalf of our employees.

In the first nine months of fiscal 2022, we awarded 150,633 PSUs, we issued 55,009 shares of our common stock on vesting of previously granted awards and 68,975 shares were forfeited. At September 24, 2022, we had 411,139 PSUs outstanding with an aggregate intrinsic value of approximately $10.7 million and the weighted average remaining vesting period was approximately 1.4 years.

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

The Cohu, Inc. 1997 Employee Stock Purchase Plan (“ESPP”) provides for the issuance of shares of our common stock. Under the ESPP, eligible employees may purchase shares of Cohu common stock through payroll deductions at a price equal to 85 percent of the lower of the fair market value of Cohu common stock at the beginning or end of each 6-month purchase period, subject to certain limits. During the first nine months of fiscal 2022, 77,361 shares of our common stock were sold to our employees under the ESPP leaving 429,992 shares available for future issuance.