Note 7 - Stock-based Compensation

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2022

Notes to Financial Statements

Share-Based Payment Arrangement [Text Block]

Note 7.  Stock-Based Compensation

We have three stock-based compensation plans. The 2006 Stock Incentive Plan was adopted in 2006 (“2006 Plan”) and had options granted under it through April 12, 2016. The 2016 Stock Incentive Plan was adopted in 2016 (“2016 Plan”) and had options granted under it through November 15, 2021. On October 11, 2021, the Board of Directors approved the 2021 Stock Incentive Plan (“2021 Plan”) and on December 2, 2021, our shareholders approved the plan.

The Company recognizes compensation costs only for those shares expected to vest on a straight-line basis over the requisite service period of the awards. Fair values of option awards granted in the three months ended March 31, 2022 and 2021, were estimated using the Black-Scholes option pricing model under the following assumptions:

	Three months ended March 31,
	2022			2021
Risk-free interest rate	1.91%	-	2.41%	0.46%	-	0.92%
Dividend yield		0%			0%
Expected term (years)	5.75	-	6.00		5.00
Expected volatility	45.8%	-	46.1%	92.6%	-	93.8%

Determining the assumptions for the expected term and volatility requires management to exercise significant judgement. The expected term represents the weighted-average period that options granted are expected to be outstanding giving consideration to vesting schedules. Since the Company does not have an extended history of actual exercises, the Company has estimated the expected term using a simplified method which calculates the expected term as the average of the time-to-vesting and the contractual life of the awards. Given the limited public market for the Company’s stock, the Company has elected to estimate its expected volatility by benchmarking its volatility to that of several public company issuers that operate within its market segment. The guideline companies’ volatility was increased by a size adjustment premium to compensate for the difference in size between the guideline companies and the Company in its calculation. The first issuance for which this benchmarking was applied was effective with options granted on March 31, 2021.

There were 912,000 options with grant date fair values totaling $2,074,670 and 145,000 options with grant date fair values totaling $176,900 granted during the three months ended March 31, 2022, and 2021, respectively. There were 105,000 options and no options exercised during the three months ended March 31, 2022, and 2021, respectively. As of March 31, 2022, there was $2,966,854 of total unrecognized compensation cost related to nonvested share-based compensation arrangements granted under the stock incentive plans; that cost is expected to be recognized over a weighted-average period of 11 months.

Total compensation expense related to these plans was $312,176 and $27,711 for the three months ended March 31, 2022, and 2021, respectively and is included in selling, general and administrative expenses on the condensed consolidated statements of operations.