NOTE 13.EQUITY

Omnibus Incentive Plan

On May 27, 2015, our stockholders approved the Omnibus Incentive Plan (“Omnibus Plan”), which was approved by our Board of Directors on April 7, 2015. The Omnibus Plan was developed to provide additional incentives through equity ownership in US Ecology and, as a result, encourage employees and directors to contribute to our success. The Omnibus Plan provides, among other things, the ability for the Company to grant restricted stock, performance stock, options, stock appreciation rights, restricted stock units (“RSUs”), performance stock units (“PSUs”) and other stock-based awards or cash awards to officers, employees, consultants and non-employee directors. Subsequent to the approval of the Omnibus Plan in May 2015, we stopped granting equity awards under our 2008 Stock Option Incentive Plan and our 2006 Restricted Stock Plan (collectively, the “Previous Plans”), and the Previous Plans will remain in effect solely for the settlement of awards granted under the Previous Plans. No shares that are reserved but unissued under the Previous Plans or that are outstanding under the Previous Plans and reacquired by the Company for any reason will be available for issuance under the Omnibus Plan. The Omnibus Plan expires on April 7, 2025 and authorizes 1,500,000 shares of common stock for grant over the life of the Omnibus Plan. As of March 31, 2016, 1,249,752 shares of common stock remain available for grant under the Omnibus Plan.

PSUs, RSUs and Restricted Stock

On January 4, 2016, the Company granted 16,000 PSUs to certain employees. Each PSU represents the right to receive, on the settlement date, one share of the Company’s common stock. The total number of PSUs each participant is eligible to earn ranges from 0% to 200% of the target number of PSUs granted. The actual number of PSUs that will vest and be settled in shares is determined at the end of a three-year performance period beginning January 1, 2016, based on total stockholder return relative to a set of peer companies. The fair value of the PSUs estimated on the grant date using a Monte Carlo simulation was $41.22 per unit. Compensation expense is recorded over the awards’ vesting period.

Assumptions used in the Monte Carlo simulation to calculate the fair value of the PSUs granted in 2016 and 2015 are as follows:

	2016			2015
Stock price on grant date	$	35.05		$	46.89
Expected term (years)	3.0			2.6
Expected volatility	29		%	29		%
Risk-free interest rate	1.3		%	0.9		%
Expected dividend yield	2.1		%	1.5		%

A summary of our PSU, restricted stock and RSU activity for the three months ended March 31, 2016 is as follows:

	PSUs			Restricted Stock				RSUs
	Shares	Weighted Average Grant Date Fair Value		Shares		Weighted Average Grant Date Fair Value		Shares	Weighted Average Grant Date Fair Value
Outstanding as of December 31, 2015	6,929	$	65.78	59,413		$	42.67	—	$	—
Granted	16,000	41.22		26,300		35.05		20,830	39.10
Vested	—	—		(19,305	)	32.42		—	—
Cancelled, expired or forfeited	—	—		—		—		—	—

Outstanding as of March 31, 2016	22,929	$	48.64	66,408		$	42.63	20,830	$	39.10

Stock Options

A summary of our stock option activity for the three months ended March 31, 2016 is as follows:

	Shares	Weighted Average Exercise Price
Outstanding as of December 31, 2015	336,417	$	35.83
Granted	147,660	37.83
Exercised	—	—
Cancelled, expired or forfeited	—	—

Outstanding as of March 31, 2016	484,077	$	36.44


Exercisable as of March 31, 2016	160,575	$	32.11

Treasury Stock

During the three months ended March 31, 2016, the Company issued 3,982 shares of restricted stock, under the Omnibus Plan, from our treasury stock at an average cost of $39.05 per share and repurchased 5,564 shares of the Company’s common stock in connection with net share settlement of employee equity awards at an average cost of $40.49 per share.