CAPITAL STOCK

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

CAPITAL STOCK

CAPITAL STOCK

13. CAPITAL STOCK

Our authorized capital stock consists of 2,000,000 preferred shares, none of which were issued or outstanding at December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014, and 120,000,000 common shares, no par value per share, of which the following shares were outstanding:

	2016		2015		2014
Shares outstanding as of December 31,		51,527,711		51,501,877		50,284,007
Summary of Share Issuances:
Share Issuances related to Equity Compensation:
Shares issued upon exercise of stock options by employees		25,834		657,998		711,516
Proceeds realized from stock option exercises	$	80,161	$	2,780,188	$	2,964,445
Average exercise price of options exercised	$	3.10	$	4.23	$	4.17
Restricted Stock Grants		—		850,000		740,000
Share issuances related to Warrant Exercises
Shares issued upon the exercise of warrants		—				904,886
Proceeds realized from warrant exercises		—			$	8,433,045
Share issuances related to Equity Offerings
Shares issued pursuant to equity offerings		—				7,816,944
Proceeds realized from equity offerings		—			$	69,780,967

Common Shares

Holders of the common shares are entitled to one vote per share on all matters submitted to a vote of our shareholders and are entitled to receive dividends when and if declared by the Board of Directors. The Board is authorized to issue additional common shares within the limits of the Company’s Articles of Incorporation without further shareholder action, subject to applicable stock exchange rules.

Warrants

As of December 31, 2016 and 2015, we had no outstanding warrants.  During 2014, we realized $8,433,045 in net proceeds from the exercise of 904,886 warrants at an average exercise price of $9.32.