Earnings Per Share (“EPS”)

Basic EPS is calculated by dividing net income by the weighted average number of shares outstanding during the period. Unvested restricted shares, although legally issued and outstanding, are not considered outstanding for purposes of calculating basic earnings per share. Diluted EPS is calculated by dividing net income by the weighted average number of shares outstanding plus the dilutive effect, if any, of outstanding stock options, SARs, RSAs, and RSUs using the treasury stock method.

The following table provides share information used in the calculation of the Company's basic and diluted earnings per share (in thousands):

	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2017		2016
Shares used in the calculation of basic earnings per share		14,576		14,875
Effect of dilutive securities:
Stock options, SARs, and RSAs		467		432
Diluted shares used in the calculation of earnings per share		15,043		15,307

Stock options to purchase

0.6

million shares and

0.3

million shares for the

three

-month periods ended

March

31,

2017

and

2016,

respectively, were excluded from the computation of diluted EPS as their effect would have been anti-dilutive.

February

26,

2016,

the Company entered into an accelerated stock repurchase agreement with Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC (“Morgan Stanley”) pursuant to a Fixed Dollar Accelerated Share Repurchase Transaction (“ASR Agreement") to purchase

$25.0

million of shares of its common stock. Pursuant to the terms of the ASR Agreement, the Company paid Morgan Stanley

$25.0

million in cash and received delivery of

0.4

million shares of the Company’s common stock on

February

29,

2016

based on a closing market price of

$46.40

per share and the applicable contractual discount.

August

26,

2016,

the Company settled the approximately

$7.5

million remaining under the ASR Agreement, which was recorded as an equity forward sale contract and was included in additional paid-in capital in stockholders' equity in the condensed consolidated balance sheets as it met the criteria for equity accounting. Pursuant to the terms of the ASR Agreement, the final number of shares and the average purchase price was determined at the end of the applicable purchase period, which was

August

26,

2016.

Based on the volume-weighted average price since the effective date of the ASR Agreement less the applicable contractual discount, Morgan Stanley delivered

0.1

million additional shares to the Company on

August

31,

2016.

In total,

0.5

million shares were repurchased under the ASR Agreement at an average repurchase price of

$47.08

per share. These shares are held by the Company as authorized but unissued shares pursuant to Massachusetts law. The initial and final delivery of shares resulted in immediate reductions of the outstanding shares used to calculate the weighted-average common shares outstanding for basic and diluted net income per share.