Note 16 - Incentive Plans

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2024

Notes to Financial Statements

Share-Based Payment Arrangement [Text Block]

16. Incentive Plans

The Company has an Equity Participation Plan (as amended and/or restated, the “Equity Plan”), which provides for a maximum of 10,000,000 shares of the Company’s common stock to be reserved for the issuance of stock options, stock appreciation rights, restricted stock, restricted stock units, performance awards, dividend equivalents, LTIP Units, stock payments and deferred stock awards. At March 31, 2024, the Company had 2.9 million shares of common stock available for issuance under the Equity Plan.

The Company accounts for equity awards in accordance with FASB’s compensation – Stock Compensation guidance, which requires that all share-based payments to employees, including grants of employee stock options, restricted stock, performance shares and LTIP Units, be recognized in the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations over the service period based on their fair values. Fair value of performance awards is determined using the Monte Carlo method, which is intended to estimate the fair value of the awards at the grant date. Fair value of restricted shares is calculated based on the price on the date of grant.

The Company recognized expenses associated with its equity awards of $10.0 million and $9.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. As of March 31, 2024, the Company had $71.0 million of total unrecognized compensation cost related to unvested stock compensation granted under the Plans. That cost is expected to be recognized over a weighted-average period of approximately 3.1 years.

Restricted Stock

Information with respect to restricted stock under the Plan for the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023 are as follows:

	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2024			2023
Restricted stock outstanding as of January 1,		2,746,116			2,605,970
Granted (1)		872,150			893,320
Vested		(679,546	)		(705,374	)
Forfeited		(15,562	)		(2,168	)
Restricted stock outstanding as of March 31,		2,923,158			2,791,748

(1) The weighted-average grant date fair value for restricted stock issued during the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023 were $19.47 and $21.30, respectively.

Performance Shares

Information with respect to performance share awards under the Plan for the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023 are as follows:

	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2024	2023
Performance share awards outstanding as of January 1,	989,860	1,004,040
Granted (1)	377,690	531,200
Vested (2)	(458,660)	(545,380)
Performance share awards outstanding as of March 31,	908,890	989,860

(1) The weighted-average grant date fair value for performance shares issued during the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023 were $18.14 and $42.61, respectively.

(2) For the three months ended March 31, 2024, and 2023, the corresponding common stock equivalent of these vested awards were 970,232 and 998,238 shares, respectively.

Time-Based LTIP Units

During the three months ended March 31, 2024, the Company granted to certain employees and directors 120,700 LTIP Units with time-based vesting requirements (“Time-Based LTIP Units”) and a weighted average grant-date fair value of $19.47 per unit that vest ratably over five years subject to continued employment. Compensation expense for these units is being recognized over a five-year period.

The aggregate grant-date fair value of the Time-Based LTIP Units for the three months ended March 31, 2024 was $2.4 million. Granted Time-Based LTIP Units do not have redemption rights, but any OP Units into which units are converted are entitled to redemption rights. The Time-Based LTIPs were valued based on the Company’s closing common share price on the date of grant.

Performance-Based LTIP Units

During the three months ended March 31, 2024, the Company granted to certain employees 205,440 LTIP Units with performance-based vesting requirements (“Performance-Based LTIP Units”) and a weighted average grant-date fair value of $18.14 per unit.

Performance-Based LTIP Units are performance-based equity compensation pursuant to which participants have the opportunity to earn LTIP Units based on the relative performance of the total shareholder return of the Company’s common shares relative to its peers, as defined, or based on other performance criteria as determined by the Board of Directors, over the defined performance period. Any Performance-Based LTIP Units that are earned, vest at the end of the three-year performance period. Compensation expense for these units is recognized over the performance period.

The aggregate grant-date fair value of the Performance-Based LTIP Units for the three months ended March 31, 2024 was $3.7 million, valued using Monte Carlo simulations based on the following significant assumptions:

	Three Months Ended March 31, 2024
Expected volatility		28.9%
Dividend yield		-
Risk-free interest rate		4.4%