Stock-Based Compensation

12 Months Ended

Dec. 28, 2019

Share-based Payment Arrangement [Abstract]

Equity Plans: The Company has equity-based compensation plans authorizing the granting of stock options, restricted shares, restricted share units, and other stock rights to employees and directors. As of December 28, 2019, there were 1.2 million shares available for issuance of future awards under the Company’s equity-based compensation plans.

Stock options generally vest over a three, four or five-year period and are exercisable over either a seven or ten-year period commencing from the date of the grant. Restricted shares and share units granted by the Company generally vest over three to four years. Stock options and restricted share units may have accelerated vesting upon meeting certain qualified conditions.

Upon completion of the IXYS acquisition, IXYS outstanding options were assumed by the Company and converted into options of 499,027 shares. The Company recognized approximately $11.9 million of stock compensation expense related to IXYS stock options converted to Littelfuse stock options during the fiscal year ended December 29, 2018, of which $4.5 million was recognized immediately as it related to prior service periods. See Note 2, Acquisitions and Dispositions, for further discussion.

The following table provides a reconciliation of outstanding stock options for the fiscal year ended December 28, 2019.



	Shares Under Option		Weighted Average Price		Weighted Average Remaining Contract Life (Years)	Aggregate Intrinsic Value (000’s)
Outstanding December 29, 2018	669,356		$	116.29
Granted	76,742		199.24
Exercised	(134,982	)	97.22
Forfeited	(10,651	)	108.23
Outstanding December 28, 2019	600,465		131.32		4.6	$	37,048
Exercisable December 28, 2019	413,109		111.65		4.0	33,215

The following table provides a reconciliation of non-vested restricted share and share unit awards ("RSU") for the fiscal year ended December 28, 2019.



	Shares		Weighted Average Grant-Date Fair Value
Nonvested December 29, 2018	160,794		$	164.61
Granted	70,225		195.71
Vested	(84,990	)	154.38
Forfeited	(11,893	)	181.70
Nonvested December 28, 2019	134,136		185.86

The total intrinsic value of options exercised during 2019, 2018, and 2017 was $12.5 million, $38.3 million, and $2.2 million, respectively. The total fair value of the vested RSU shares was $15.5 million, $20.8 million, and $15.0 million for 2019, 2018, and 2017, respectively. The total amount of share-based liabilities paid was $0.9 million, $1.1 million and $0.9 million for 2019, 2018, and 2017, respectively.

The Company recognizes compensation cost of all share-based awards as an expense on a straight-line basis over the vesting period of the awards. At December 28, 2019, the unrecognized compensation cost for options and restricted shares was $17.4 million before tax, and will be recognized over a weighted average period of 1.8 years. Compensation cost included as a component of cost of sales, research and development and selling, general, and administrative expenses for all equity compensation plans discussed above was $19.9 million, $28.2 million, and $17.3 million for 2019, 2018, and 2017, respectively. The total related income tax benefit recognized in the Consolidated Statements of Net Income was $3.3 million, $6.0 million and $6.0 million for 2019, 2018, and 2017, respectively.

The Company uses the Black-Scholes option valuation model to determine the fair value of stock option awards granted. The weighted average fair value of and related assumptions for options granted are as follows:



	2019	2018	2017
Weighted average fair value of options granted	$47.63	$45.19	$30.77
Assumptions:
Risk-free interest rate	2.33%	2.79%	1.79%
Expected dividend yield	0.86%	0.77%	0.86%
Expected stock price volatility	27.0%	25.0%	23.0%
Expected life of options (years)	4.4	4.4	4.4

Expected volatilities are based on the historical volatility of the Company’s stock price. The expected life of options is based on historical data for options granted by the Company. The risk-free rates are based on yields available at the time of grant on U.S. Treasury bonds with maturities consistent with the expected life assumption. Historical nonvested forfeiture information is the basis for the forfeiture rate assumptions.

The fair value of RSU is determined based on the Company's stock price on the grant date reduced by the present value of expected dividends through the vesting period.

Preferred Stock: The Board of Directors may authorize the issuance of preferred stock from time to time in one or more series with such designations, preferences, qualifications, limitations, restrictions, and optional or other special rights as the Board may fix by resolution.

Share Repurchase Program

On May 2, 2018, the Company announced that the Company’s Board of Directors had authorized the repurchase of up to 1,000,000 shares of the Company’s common stock under a program for the period May 1, 2018 to April 30, 2019 ("2018 program"). On May 1, 2019, the Company announced that the Company's Board of Directors had authorized a new program to repurchase up to 1,000,000 shares of the Company's common stock for the period May 1, 2019 to April 30, 2020 ("2019 program"). During the fiscal year 2019, the Company repurchased 579,916 shares of its common stock totaling $95.0 million. During the fiscal year 2018, the Company repurchased 391,972 shares of its common stock totaling $67.9 million.