Equity Awards

The Company maintains the following long-term equity incentive plans: the TriMas Corporation Director Retainer Share Election Program, the 2011 TriMas Corporation Omnibus Incentive Compensation Plan, the TriMas Corporation 2006 Long Term Equity Incentive Plan and the TriMas Corporation 2002 Long Term Equity Incentive Plan (collectively, the "Plans"). The 2002 Long Term Equity Incentive Plan expired in 2012, such that, while existing grants will remain outstanding until exercised, vested or cancelled, no new shares may be issued under the plan. See below for details of awards under the Plans by type.

Stock Options

The Company did not grant any stock option awards during the three months ended March 31, 2016. Information related to stock options at March 31, 2016 is as follows:



	Number of Stock Options		Weighted Average Option Price		Average Remaining Contractual Life (Years)	Aggregate Intrinsic Value
Outstanding at January 1, 2016	206,123		$	4.84
Exercised	(15,800	)	0.86
Cancelled	—		—
Expired	—		—
Outstanding at March 31, 2016	190,323		$	5.17	2.3	$	2,432,388

As of March 31, 2016, 190,323 stock options were exercisable under the Plans. The Company did not incur any stock-based compensation expense related to stock options during the three months ended March 31, 2016 and 2015.

Restricted Shares

The Company awarded the following restricted shares during the first quarter of 2016:


•	granted 600 restricted shares of common stock to certain employees that are subject only to a service condition and vest on the first anniversary date of the award so long as the employee remains with the Company;


•	granted 217,818 restricted shares of common stock to certain employees which are subject only to a service condition and vest ratably over three years so long as the employee remains with the Company;

•

granted 42,740 restricted shares of common stock to certain employees which are subject only to a service condition and vest on the first anniversary date of the award. The awards were made to participants in the Company's short-term incentive compensation plan ("STI"), where all STI participants whose target annual award exceeds $20 thousand receive 80% of the value in earned cash and 20% in the form of a restricted stock award upon finalization of the award amount in the first quarter each year following the previous plan year; and


•	granted 41,174 restricted shares of common stock to its non-employee independent directors, which vest one year from date of grant so long as the director and/or Company does not terminate their service prior to the vesting date.

In addition, during the three months ended March 31, 2016, the Company issued 4,368 shares related to director fee deferrals. The Company allows for its non-employee independent directors to make an annual election to defer all or a portion of their directors fees and to receive the deferred amount in cash or equity. Certain of the Company's directors have elected to defer all or a portion of their directors fees and to receive the amount in Company common stock at a future date.

During the first quarter of 2016, the Company awarded 193,975 performance-based shares of common stock to certain Company key employees which vest on March 1, 2019, so long as the employee remains with the Company. The performance criteria for these awards is based on the Company's total shareholder return ("TSR") relative to the TSR of the common stock of a pre-defined industry peer-group, measured over a period beginning January 1, 2016 and ending December 31, 2018. TSR is calculated as the Company's average closing stock price for the 20-trading days at the end of the performance period plus Company dividends, divided by the Company's average closing stock price for the 20-trading days prior to the start of the performance period. Depending on the performance achieved, the amount of shares earned can vary from 0% of the target award to a maximum of 200% of the target award. The Company estimated the grant-date fair value and term of the awards subject to a market condition using a Monte Carlo simulation model, using the following weighted-average assumptions: risk-free interest rate of 0.96% and annualized volatility of 35.8%.

During 2013, the Company awarded performance-based shares of common stock to certain Company key employees which were earned based upon the achievement of EPS CAGR and cash generation performance metrics over a period of three calendar years, beginning January 1, 2013 and ending on December 31, 2015. The Company attained 50% of the target on a weighted average basis, resulting in a reduction of 35,850 shares during the first quarter of 2016.

Information related to restricted shares at March 31, 2016 is as follows:



	Number of Unvested Restricted Shares		Weighted Average Grant Date Fair Value		Average Remaining Contractual Life (Years)	Aggregate Intrinsic Value
Outstanding at January 1, 2016	765,314		$	23.73
Granted	500,675		18.46
Vested	(227,601	)	25.17
Cancelled	(61,573	)	24.14
Outstanding at March 31, 2016	976,815		$	20.67	1.7	$	17,133,799

As of March 31, 2016, there was approximately $14.6 million of unrecognized compensation cost related to unvested restricted shares that is expected to be recorded over a weighted-average period of 2.3 years.

The Company recognized approximately $2.0 million of stock-based compensation expense related to restricted shares during the three months ended March 31, 2016 and 2015, respectively. The stock-based compensation expense is included in selling, general and administrative expenses in the accompanying consolidated statement of income.