Shareholders' Equity Shareholders' Equity

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2015

Shareholders' Equity [Abstract]

Shareholders' Equity and Share-based Payments

8. Shareholders’ Equity

Common Stock Offering

On March 20, 2015, the Company completed its public offering of 5.2 million shares of its common stock at a price of $44.75 per share, which generated proceeds of $231.3 million, net of offering costs. The net proceeds from the common stock offering were used to repay a portion of the borrowings under the Company’s revolving credit facility and for general corporate purposes.

Exercise of Warrants

On November 24, 2009, the Company entered into an agreement with an unrelated third party and its affiliate under which the Company issued 118,200 warrants to purchase shares of the Company’s common stock. In May 2015, the holders of the warrants exercised all warrants outstanding on a “cashless” basis at an exercise price of $22.09 resulting in the issuance of 71,913 net shares of the Company’s common stock.

Stock-Based Compensation

The Company recognized the following stock-based compensation expense, net for the periods indicated which is reflected as general and administrative expense in the consolidated statements of operations:

	Three Months Ended June 30,						Six Months Ended June 30,
	2015			2014			2015			2014
	(In thousands)
Stock appreciation rights		($49	)		$11,116			$5,891			$19,572
Restricted stock awards and units	6,014			8,224			11,229			13,925
Performance share awards	496			319			765			333
	6,461			19,659			17,885			33,830
Less: amounts capitalized to proved and unproved properties	(1,518		)	(2,681		)	(3,089		)	(4,691		)
Total stock-based compensation expense, net		$4,943			$16,978			$14,796			$29,139
Income tax benefit		$1,731			$5,943			$5,179			$10,199