Stock-Based Compensation

12 Months Ended

Dec. 26, 2020

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 26, 2020, there were 0.9 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 26, 2020.


	Shares Under Option	Weighted Average Price		Weighted Average Remaining Contract Life (Years)	Aggregate Intrinsic Value (000’s)
Outstanding December 28, 2019	600,465	$	131.32
Granted	297,954	152.86

Exercised	(209,093)	104.18
Forfeited	(22,377)	173.95
Outstanding December 26, 2020	666,949	148.01		5.1	$	69,126
Exercisable December 26, 2020	296,409	133.00		3.7	35,172

The following table provides a reconciliation of non-vested restricted share and share unit awards ("RSU") for the fiscal year ended December 26, 2020.


	Shares	Weighted Average Grant-Date Fair Value
Nonvested December 28, 2019	134,136	$	185.86
Granted	115,349	130.14
Vested	(68,550)	177.78
Forfeited	(8,933)	175.38
Nonvested December 26, 2020	172,002	152.25

The total intrinsic value of options exercised during 2020, 2019, and 2018 was $20.6 million, $12.5 million, and $38.3 million, respectively. The total fair value of the vested RSU shares was $9.5 million, $15.5 million, and $20.8 million for 2020, 2019, and 2018, respectively. The total amount of share-based liabilities paid was $0.5 million, $0.9 million and $1.1 million for 2020, 2019, and 2018, 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 26, 2020, the unrecognized compensation cost for options and restricted shares was $22.6 million before tax, and will be recognized over a weighted average period of 2.0 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 $19.1 million, $19.9 million, and $28.2 million for 2020, 2019, and 2018, respectively. The total related income tax benefit recognized in the Consolidated Statements of Net Income was $3.1 million, $3.3 million and $6.0 million for 2020, 2019, and 2018, 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:


	2020	2019	2018
Weighted average fair value of options granted	$38.09	$47.63	$45.19
Assumptions:
Risk-free interest rate	0.30%	2.33%	2.79%
Expected dividend yield	1.27%	0.86%	0.77%
Expected stock price volatility	33.0%	27.0%	25.0%
Expected life of options (years)	4.7	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

The Company’s Board of Directors 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 April 26, 2019, the Company's Board of Directors authorized to a 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") to replace its previous expired 2018 program. On April 23, 2020, the Company's Board of Directors authorized a new program to repurchase up to 1,000,000 shares of the Company's common stock for the period May 1, 2020 to April 30, 2021 (the "2020 program") to replace its previous expired 2019 program. There are 1,000,000 shares remaining available for purchase under the 2020 program as of December 26, 2020.

During the fiscal year 2020, 2019, and 2018, the Company repurchased 175,110, 579,916, and 391,972 shares of its common stock totaling $22.9 million, $95.0 million, and $67.9 million, respectively.