Equity Incentive Plans

In 2014, the Board of Directors adopted The GEO Group, Inc. 2014 Stock Incentive Plan (the "2014 Plan"), which was approved by the Company's shareholders on May 2, 2014. The 2014 Plan replaced the former GEO Group, Inc. 2006 Stock Incentive Plan (the "2006 Plan"). The 2014 Plan provides for a reserve of 3,083,353 shares, which consists of 2,000,000 new shares of common stock available for issuance and 1,083,353 shares of common stock that were available for issuance under the 2006 Plan prior to the 2014 Plan replacing it. At December 31, 2016, there were 1,839,659 shares of common stock reserved for issuance in connection with awards under the 2014 Plan and outstanding options exercisable for 807,315 shares of common stock under the 2014 Plan.

Under the terms of the 2014 Plan, the vesting period and, in the case of stock options, the exercise price per share, are determined by the terms of each grant agreement. All stock options that have been granted under the Company plans are exercisable at the fair market value of the common stock at the date of the grant. Generally, the stock options vest and become exercisable ratably over a four-year period, beginning immediately on the date of the grant. However, the Board of Directors has exercised its discretion to grant stock options that vest 100% immediately for the Chief Executive Officer. All stock options awarded under the 2014 Plan expire no later than ten years after the date of the grant. When options are exercised, the Company issues shares related to exercised options out of common stock.

The Company recognized compensation expense related to the Company plans for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014 as follows (in thousands):



	2016		2015		2014
Stock option plan expense	$	538	$	727	$	1,161
Restricted stock expense	$	12,235	$	10,982	$	7,748

Stock Options

A summary of the activity of the Company’s stock options plans is presented below:



	Shares		Wtd. Avg. Exercise Price		Wtd. Avg. Remaining Contractual Term (years)	Aggregate Intrinsic Value
	(In thousands)					(In thousands)
Options outstanding at December 31, 2015	749		$	29.98	6.85	$	3,057
Granted	295		29.39
Exercised	(155	)	21.07
Forfeited/Canceled	(82	)	35.00
Options outstanding at December 31, 2016	807		$	30.97	7.14	$	5,466
Options vested and expected to vest at December 31, 2016	769		$	30.85	7.06	$	5,292
Options exercisable at December 31, 2016	414		$	27.97	5.81	$	3,885

The aggregate intrinsic value in the table above represents the total pretax intrinsic value (i.e., the difference between the Company’s closing stock price on the last trading day of fiscal year 2016 and the exercise price, times the number of shares that are “in the money”) that would have been received by the option holders had all option holders exercised their options on December 31, 2016. This amount changes based on the fair value of the Company’s stock.

The following table summarizes information relative to stock option activity during the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014 (in thousands):



	2016		2015		2014
Intrinsic value of options exercised	$	1,671	$	2,000	$	5,736
Fair value of shares vested	$	518	$	1,314	$	1,095

The following table summarizes information about the exercise prices and related information of stock options outstanding under the Company plans at December 31, 2016:



	Options Outstanding				Options Exercisable
Exercise Prices	Number Outstanding	Wtd. Avg. Remaining Contractual Life	Wtd. Avg. Exercise Price		Number Exercisable	Wtd. Avg. Remaining Contractual Life	Wtd. Avg. Exercise Price
	(In thousands)
0-18.23	51	2.71	$	17.54	51	2.71	$	17.54
18.24-22.26	122	3.69	$	21.14	122	3.69	$	21.14
22.27-29.39	296	8.65	$	28.32	89	7.38	$	25.86
29.40-43.15	338	7.74	$	38.83	152	7.64	$	38.18
Total	807	7.14	$	30.97	414	5.81	$	27.97

The weighted average grant date fair value of options granted during the year ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014 was $2.09, $4.26 and $2.92 per share, respectively. There were 0.3 million, 0.3 million and 0.2 million options granted during the year ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively.

The following table summarizes the status of non-vested stock options as of December 31, 2016 and 2015, and changes during the year ending December 31, 2016:



	Number of Shares		Wtd. Avg. Grant Date Fair Value
	(In thousands)
Options non-vested at December 31, 2015	314		$	3.84
Granted	295		2.09
Vested	(134	)	3.29
Forfeited	(82	)	3.10
Options non-vested at December 31, 2016	393		$	2.90

As of December 31, 2016, the Company had $0.8 million of unrecognized compensation costs related to non-vested stock option awards that are expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of 2.5 years.

Restricted Stock

During the year ended December 31, 2016, the Company granted approximately 349,000 shares of restricted stock to certain employees and executive officers. Of these awards, 115,000 are market and performance-based awards which will be forfeited if the Company does not achieve certain annual metrics over a three year period from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2018.

The fair value of restricted stock awards, which do not contain a market performance-based condition, is determined using the closing price of the Company’s common stock on the date of the grant and compensation expense is recognized over the vesting period. Generally, the restricted stock awards vest in equal increments over either a three or four year period.

The vesting of these performance-based restricted stock grants are subject to the achievement by GEO of two annual performance metrics as follows: (i) up to 50% of the shares of restricted stock (“TSR Target Award”) can vest at the end of a three-year performance period if GEO meets certain total shareholder return (“TSR”) performance targets, as compared to the total shareholder return of a peer group of companies, over a three year period from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2018 and (ii) up to 50% of the shares of restricted stock (“ROCE Target Award”) can vest at the end of a three-year period if GEO meets certain return on capital employed (“ROCE”) performance targets over a three year period from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2018. These market and performance awards can vest at between 0% and 200% of the target awards for both metrics. The number of shares shown for the performance-based awards is based on the target awards for both metrics.

During the year ended December 31, 2015, the Company granted 423,000 shares of restricted stock to certain employees and executive officers. Of these awards, 148,500 are performance-based awards which will be forfeited if the Company does not achieve certain annual metrics over a three year period from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2017.

The vesting of the performance-based restricted stock grants awarded in 2015 are subject to the achievement by GEO of two annual performance metrics as follows: (i) up to 75% of the shares of restricted stock ("TSR Target Award") can vest at the end of a three-year performance period if GEO meets certain total shareholder return ("TSR") performance targets, as compared to the total shareholder return of a peer group of companies, over a three year period from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2017; and (ii) up to 25% of the shares of restricted stock ("ROCE Target Award") can vest at the end of a three-year performance period if GEO meets certain return on capital employed ("ROCE") performance targets over a three year period from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2017. These performance awards can vest at between 0% and 200% of the target awards for both metrics. The number of shares shown for the performance-based awards is based on the target awards for both metrics.

During the year ended December 31, 2014, the Company granted 306,150 shares of restricted stock to its executive officers and to certain senior employees. Of these awards, 90,000 are performance-based awards which will be forfeited if the Company does not achieve certain annual metrics over a three year period from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2016. The vesting of the performance-based restricted stock grants awarded in 2014 are subject to the achievement by GEO of two annual performance metrics as follows: (i) up to 75% of the TSR Target Award can vest at the end of a three-year performance period if GEO meets certain TSR performance targets, as compared to the total shareholder return of a peer group of companies, over a three year period from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2016; and (ii) up to 25% of the ROCE Target Award can vest at the end of a three-year period if GEO meets certain ROCE performance targets over a three year period from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2016. These performance awards can vest at the end of the three year performance period at between 0% and 200% of the target awards for both metrics. The number of shares shown for the performance-based awards is based on the target awards for both metrics.

The metric related to TSR is considered to be a market condition. For share-based awards that contain a market condition, the probability of satisfying the market condition must be considered in the estimate of grant-date fair value. Compensation expense is recognized over the vesting period and previously recorded compensation expense is not reversed if the market condition is never met. Refer to Note 1 - Summary of Business Organization, Operations and Significant Accounting Policies, Stock-Based Compensation Expense, for the assumptions and method used to value these awards.

The metric related to ROCE is considered to be a performance condition. For share-based awards that contain a performance condition, the achievement of the targets must be probable before any share-based compensation expense is recorded. The Company reviews the likelihood of which target in the range will be achieved and if deemed probable, compensation expense is recorded at that time. If subsequent to initial measurement there is a change in the estimate of the probability of meeting the performance condition, the effect of the change in the estimated quantity of awards expected to vest is recognized by cumulatively adjusting compensation expense. If ultimately the performance targets are not met, for any awards where vesting was previously deemed probable, previously recognized compensation expense will be reversed in the period in which vesting is no longer deemed probable. During 2016, 2015 and 2014, the Company deemed the achievement of the target award to be probable and there were no changes in the estimated quantity of awards expected to vest. The fair value of these awards was determined based on the closing price of the Company's common stock on the date of grant.

The following table summarizes the status of restricted stock awards as of December 31, 2016 and 2015, and changes during the year ended December 31, 2016:



	Shares		Wtd. Avg. Grant date Fair value
	(In thousands)
Restricted stock outstanding at December 31, 2015	863		$	39.74
Granted	349		30.43
Vested	(259	)	35.66
Forfeited/Canceled	(56	)	38.24
Restricted stock outstanding at December 31, 2016	897		$	36.56

As of December 31, 2016, the Company had $19.7 million of unrecognized compensation cost that is expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of 2.2 years.

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

The Company previously adopted The GEO Group Inc. 2011 Employee Stock Purchase Plan (the “Plan”), which was approved by the Company's shareholders. The purpose of the Plan, which is qualified under Section 423 of the Internal Revenue Service Code of 1986, as amended, is to encourage stock ownership through payroll deductions by the employees of GEO and designated subsidiaries of GEO in order to increase their identification with the Company’s goals and secure a proprietary interest in the Company’s success. These deductions are used to purchase shares of the Company’s Common Stock at a 5% discount from the then current market price. The Company has made available up to 500,000 shares of its common stock, which were registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 4, 2012, as amended on July 18, 2014, for sale to eligible employees.

The Plan is considered to be non-compensatory. As such, there is no compensation expense required to be recognized. Share purchases under the Plan are made on the last day of each month. During the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014, 15,358, 13,205 and 11,196 shares of common stock, respectively, were issued in connection with the Plan.