Stock Options and Awards

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

Stock Options and Awards [Abstract]

Stock options and awards

Note 11 - Stock options and awards:

On May 29, 2015, the Company’s shareholders approved the Ocean Bio-Chem, Inc. 2015 Equity Compensation Plan (the “Plan”). The Plan provides for grants of several types of awards at the discretion of the Equity Grant Committee of the Company’s Board of Directors, including stock options, stock units, stock awards, stock appreciation rights and other stock based awards. The Plan authorizes the issuance of 630,000 shares of Company common stock, subject to anti-dilution adjustments upon the occurrence of certain events affecting the common stock.  During the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015, the Company issued stock awards under the Plan, respectively aggregating 142,000 and 65,500 shares of common stock, to officers, key employees, directors and a consultant Following the withholding of an aggregate of 3,918 and 4,244 shares of common stock, respectively, in connection with a net exercise feature of the Plan, 138,082 and 61,256 shares were delivered to the award recipients, for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015, respectively. At December 31, 2016, 422,500 shares remained available for future issuance under the Plan.  The shares vested immediately upon issuance and were fully expensed in the period in which they were awarded. Compensation expense related to the stock awards was $305,780 and $168,663 for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015, respectively. The company withheld shares, pursuant to net share settlements, with a value of $8,424 and $12,610 respectively for income tax withholding related to the awards. As a result of the adoption of the Plan, no further stock awards will be made under the Company’s equity compensation plans previously approved by its shareholders (the “Prior Plans”).

Prior to the May 29, 2015 effective date of the Plan, stock options were granted under the Prior Plans. Only non-qualified options granted under the Prior Plans were outstanding on December 31, 2016. Outstanding non-qualified options were granted to outside directors, have a 10-year term from the date of grant and are immediately exercisable.  The last tranche of non-qualified options previously granted terminate on April 25, 2020.  There was no compensation expense attributable to stock options recognized during the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015, and at December 31, 2016 and 2015, there was no unrecognized compensation cost related to share based compensation arrangements

During 2016, stock options to purchase an aggregate of 30,000 shares were exercised. The Company received a total of $21,600, withheld 4,519 shares in connection with the net exercise feature of the stock options and delivered an aggregate of 25,481 shares to the option holders who exercised their options.

During 2015, a former director exercised stock options to purchase 10,000 shares. Following the withholding of 2,156 shares in connection with the net exercise feature of the stock options, the Company delivered 7,844 shares to the former director.

The following tables provide information at December 31, 2016 and 2015 regarding outstanding options under the Company’s stock option plans.  As used in the table below, “2002 NQ” refers to the Company’s 2002 Non-Qualified Stock Option Plan and “2008 NQ” refers to the Company’s 2008 Non-Qualified Stock Option Plan.

At December 31, 2016:
Plan	Date  Granted	Options Outstanding		Exercisable  Options		Exercise Price		Expiration  Date	Weighted Average  Remaining  Life
2002 NQ	12/17/07		40,000		40,000		1.32	12/16/17		1.0
2008 NQ	1/11/09		40,000		40,000		0.69	1/10/19		2.1
2008 NQ	4/26/10		20,000		20,000		2.07	4/25/20		3.4
			100,000		100,000	$	1.22			1.9

At December 31, 2015:
Plan	Date  Granted	Options Outstanding		Exercisable  Options		Exercise Price		Expiration  Date	Weighted Average  Remaining  Life
2002 NQ	4/3/06		30,000		30,000	$	1.08	4/2/16		0.3
2002 NQ	12/17/07		40,000		40,000		1.32	12/16/17		2.0
2008 NQ	1/11/09		40,000		40,000		0.69	1/10/19		3.1
2008 NQ	4/26/10		20,000		20,000		2.07	4/25/20		4.4
			130,000		130,000	$	1.19			2.3

The following table provides information relating to stock option transactions during the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015:

	2016					2015
				Weighted					Weighted
				Average					Average
				Exercise					Exercise
	Shares			Price		Shares			Price
Options outstanding beginning of the year		130,000		$	1.19		140,000		$	1.18
Options exercised		(30,000	)		1.08		(10,000	)		1.08
Total		100,000		$	1.22		130,000		$	1.19