Equity Compensation Plans

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2020

Equity Compensation Plans

Equity Compensation Plans

Note 9 – Equity Compensation Plans

Stock-based awards are outstanding under the Company’s 2014 Equity Incentive Plan, as amended (the “2014 Plan”), and the Company’s 2019 Equity Incentive Plan (the “2019 Plan” and together with the 2014 Plan, the “Plans”). The 2019 Plan was approved at the May 2019 annual stockholders’ meeting and the number of authorized shares under the 2019 Plan is fixed at 600,000.  Following approval of the 2019 Plan, no further awards were to be granted under the 2014 Plan or any other prior Company equity compensation plan.  The 2019 Plan authorizes the granting of qualified stock options, non-qualified stock options, restricted stock, restricted stock units, and stock appreciation rights (“SARs”).  Awards may be granted to selected directors, officers, employees or eligible service providers under the 2019 Plan at the discretion of the Compensation Committee of the Company’s Board of Directors.  As of June 30, 2020, 343,602 shares remained available for issuance under the 2019 Plan.

Under the 2019 Plan, unless otherwise provided in an award agreement, upon the occurrence of a change in control, all stock options and SARs then held by the participant will become fully exercisable immediately if, and all stock awards and cash incentive awards will become fully earned and vested immediately if, (i) the 2019 Plan is not an obligation of the successor entity following a change in control or (ii) the 2019 Plan is an obligation of the successor entity following a change in control and the participant incurs a termination of service without cause  or for good reason  following the change in control.  Notwithstanding the immediately preceding sentence, if the vesting of an award is conditioned upon the achievement of performance measures, then such vesting will generally be subject to the following: if, at the time of the change in control, the performance measures are less than 50% attained (pro rata based upon the time of the period through the change in control), the award will become vested and exercisable on a fractional basis with the numerator being equal to the percentage of attainment and the denominator being 50%; and if, at the time of the change in control, the performance measures are at least 50% attained (pro rata based upon the time of the period through the change in control), the award will become fully earned and vested immediately upon the change in control.  

Generally, restricted stock and restricted stock units granted under the Plans vest three years from the grant date, but the Compensation Committee of the Company’s Board of Directors has discretionary authority to change some terms including the amount of time until the vest date.  There were no stock options granted or exercised during the six months ended June 30, 2020, and as of June 30, 2020, there were no stock options outstanding.

The Company granted restricted stock under its equity compensation plans beginning in 2005 and it began granting restricted stock units in February 2009.  Awards of restricted stock under the Plans generally entitle holders to voting and dividend rights upon grant and are subject to forfeiture until certain restrictions have lapsed including employment for a specific period.  Awards of restricted stock units under the Plans are also subject to forfeiture until certain restrictions have lapsed including employment for a specific period, but do not entitle holders to voting rights until the restricted period ends and shares are transferred in connection with the units.

There were 137,944 restricted stock units issued under the 2019 Plan during the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 139,606 restricted stock units were issued under the 2014 Plan during the six months ended June 30, 2019.  Compensation expense is recognized over the vesting period of the restricted stock unit based on the market value of the award on the issue date.  Total compensation cost that has been recorded for the Plans was $1.3 million in the first six months of 2020 and 2019.

A summary of changes in the Company’s unvested restricted awards for the six months ended June 30, 2020, is as follows:

	June 30, 2020
		Weighted
	Restricted	Average
	Stock Shares	Grant Date
	and Units	Fair Value
Unvested at January 1	555,283	$	12.85
Granted	137,944		12.26
Vested	(149,952)		11.16
Forfeited	-		-
Unvested at June 30	543,275	$	13.17

Total unrecognized compensation cost of restricted awards was $3.4 million as of June 30, 2020, which is expected to be recognized over a weighted-average period of 1.92 years.