Stockholders' Equity

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Common Stock Repurchase Program

Columbia Property Trust's board of directors authorized a stock repurchase program to purchase up to an aggregate of $200.0 million of its common stock, par value $0.01 per share, from September 4, 2019 through September 4, 2021 (the "2019 Stock Repurchase Program"). Under the 2019 Stock Repurchase Program, Columbia Property Trust acquired 1.2 million shares at an average price of $19.47 per share, for aggregate purchases of $23.3 million during the three months ended March 31, 2020. As of March 31, 2020, $143.3 million remains available for repurchases under the 2019 Stock Repurchase Program. Common stock repurchases are charged against equity as incurred, and the repurchased shares are retired.

Long-Term Incentive Compensation

Columbia Property Trust maintains a stockholder-approved, long-term incentive plan (the "LTI Plan") that provides for grants of up to 4.8 million shares of stock to be made to certain employees and independent directors of Columbia Property Trust.

Employee Awards

Under the LTI Plan, Columbia Property Trust grants time-based stock awards and performance-based restricted stock unit awards to its employees.

During the three months ended March 31, 2020, Columbia Property Trust granted 294,725 shares of stock awards (the "Time-Based Restricted Shares") to employees, which will vest ratably on each anniversary of the grant over the next four years. Also, during the three months ended March 31, 2020, Columbia Property Trust granted 351,730 of performance-based restricted stock units (the "Performance-Based RSUs"), of which 75% will vest at the conclusion of a three-year performance period, and the remaining 25% will vest one year later. The payout of the Performance-Based RSUs will be determined based on Columbia Property Trust's total stockholder return relative to the FTSE NAREIT Equity Office Index. Below is a summary of the employee awards issued under the LTI Plan during the three months ended March 31, 2020:


	Time-Based Awards				Performance-Based Awards
	Restricted Shares (in thousands)	Weighted-Average Grant-Date Fair Value⁽¹⁾		RSUs (in thousands)	Weighted-Average Grant-Date Fair Value⁽²⁾
Unvested awards – beginning of period	374	$	20.96	584	$	18.86
Granted	295	$	21.06	303	$	18.06
Converted⁽³⁾	33			(33)
Vested	(166)	$	21.22	(101)	$	18.48
Forfeited	—	$	—	(9)	$	20.49
Unvested awards – end of period⁽⁴⁾	536	$	20.94	744	$	18.58

⁽¹⁾Reflects the weighted-average, grant-date fair value using the market closing price on the date of the respective grants.

⁽²⁾Reflects the weighted-average, grant-date fair value using a Monte Carlo valuation.

⁽³⁾Reflects 25% of the 2017 3-year Performance-Based RSUs granted on January 1, 2017, which converted to Time-Based Restricted shares in January 2020 and will vest in January 2021.

⁽⁴⁾As of March 31, 2020, Columbia Property Trust expects approximately 514,000 of the 536,000 unvested restricted stock units to ultimately vest and approximately 713,000 of the 744,000 unvested Performance-Based RSUs to ultimately vest, assuming a weighted-average forfeiture rate of 4.1%, which was determined based on historical forfeiture rates.

Director Stock Grants

Columbia Property Trust grants equity retainers to its directors under the LTI Plan. Such grants are made annually for the following year and vest immediately. During the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, Columbia Property Trust made the following equity retainer grant:


Date of Grant	Shares	Grant-Date Fair Value
March 2, 2020⁽¹⁾	591	$	19.80

⁽¹⁾In March 2020, a new director was appointed to the board of directors of Columbia Property Trust. The new director received a pro-rated annual equity retainer grant at appointment.

Stock-Based Compensation Expense

For the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, Columbia Property Trust incurred stock-based compensation expense related to the following events (in thousands):


	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2020		2019
Amortization of time-based awards	$	947	$	884
Amortization of performance-based awards⁽¹⁾	1,031		655
Amortization of Preferred OP unit awards issued in connection with the Normandy Acquisition	2,358		—
Issuance of shares to independent directors	12		—
Total stock-based compensation expense	$	4,348	$	1,539

⁽¹⁾Reflects amortization of awards made under the LTI Plan that will vest in future periods for service during the current period.

These expenses are included in general and administrative expenses – corporate in the accompanying consolidated statements of operations. As of March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, there were $18.3 million and $9.5 million, respectively, of unrecognized compensation costs related to unvested awards under the LTI Plan, which will be amortized over the respective vesting period, ranging from one to four years at the time of grant; and as of March 31, 2020, there were $22.1 million of unvested Preferred OP unit awards, which will vest over four years at the time of grant.