Stockholders' Equity

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2011

Stockholders' Equity [Abstract]

Stockholders' Equity

7. Stockholder's Equity

Equity Based Awards

At the 2010 Annual Meeting, the stockholders of the Company approved the Company's 2010 Long Term Incentive Plan (the "2010 Incentive Plan"). The 2010 Incentive Plan is administered by the Compensation Committee of the Company's Board of Directors. The Company has 1,500,000 shares of the Company's common stock reserved and available for issuance pursuant to awards granted under the 2010 Incentive Plan. A variety of discretionary awards for employees, officers, directors and consultants are authorized under the 2010 Incentive Plan, including incentive or non-qualified statutory stock options and nonvested stock. All awards must be evidenced by a written award certificate which will include the provisions specified by the compensation committee of the board of directors. The Compensation Committee will determine the exercise price for non-statutory stock options. The exercise price for any option cannot be less than the fair market value of our common stock as of the date of grant.

Share Based Compensation

Nonvested Stock

During the nine months ended September 30, 2011, 15,200 nonvested shares of stock were granted to our independent directors under the 2005 Director Compensation Plan. The shares issued under our 2005 Director Compensation Plan were drawn from the 1,500,000 shares reserved and available for issuance under our 2010 Incentive Plan. The shares vest 100% on the one year anniversary date. During the nine months ended September 30, 2011, employees were granted 138,470 nonvested shares pursuant to the 2010 Incentive Plan. The shares generally vest over a five year period, conditioned on continued employment for the full incentive period. The fair value of nonvested shares is determined based on the closing trading price of the Company's shares on the grant date. The weighted average grant date fair value of nonvested shares granted during the nine months ended September 30, 2011 was $26.54.

The following table represents the nonvested stock activity for the nine months ended September 30, 2011:

	Number of Shares			Weighted average grant date fair value
Nonvested shares outstanding at December 31, 2010		502,304		$	23.79
Granted		153,670		$	26.54
Vested		(145,583	)	$	23.38
Nonvested shares outstanding at September 30, 2011		510,391		$	24.25

As of September 30, 2011, there was $9.5 million of total unrecognized compensation cost related to nonvested shares granted. That cost is expected to be recognized over the weighted average period of 2.3 years. The total fair value of shares vested during the nine months ended September 30, 2011 and 2010 was $3.5 million and $2.5 million, respectively. The Company records compensation expense related to nonvested share awards at the grant date for shares that are awarded fully vested, and over the vesting term on a straight line basis for shares that vest over time. The Company recorded $3.0 million and $2.8 million of compensation expense related to nonvested stock grants in the nine months ended September 30, 2011 and 2010, respectively.

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

The Company has a plan whereby eligible employees may purchase the Company's common stock at 95% of the market price on the last day of the calendar quarter. There were 250,000 shares reserved for the plan. The table below details the shares issued during 2011.

	Number of Shares		Per share price
Shares available as of December 31, 2010		149,723
Shares issued during three months ended March 31, 2011		8,043	$	28.50
Shares issued during three months ended June 30, 2011		6,836	$	28.50
Shares issued during three months ended September 30, 2011		13,716	$	21.91
Shares available as of September 30, 2011		121,128

Stock Options

As of September 30, 2011 15,000 options were issued and exercisable. During the nine months ended September 30, 2011, no options were exercised or forfeited and no options were granted.

Treasury Stock

In conjunction with the vesting of the non-vested shares of stock, recipients incur personal income tax obligations. The Company allows the recipients to turn in shares of common stock to satisfy those personal tax obligations. During the nine months ended September 30, 2011, the Company redeemed 38,607 shares of common stock valued at $1.1 million, related to these tax obligations.

Stock Repurchase Program

In October 2010, the Company's Board of Directors authorized a share repurchase program to repurchase shares of the Company's common stock, par value $0.01 per share, from time to time, in an amount not to exceed $50.0 million ("Stock Repurchase Program"). The Company anticipates that it will finance the Stock Repurchase Program with cash from general corporate funds, or draws under the Company's Credit Facility. The Company may repurchase shares of common stock in open market purchases or in privately negotiated transactions in accordance with applicable securities laws, rules and regulations. The timing and extent to which the Company repurchases its shares will depend upon market conditions and other corporate considerations.

The Company uses the cost method to account for the repurchase of common stock and the average cost method to account for reissuance of treasury shares. During the nine months ended September 30, 2011, the Company repurchased 24,159 shares of common stock at an aggregate cost of $577,000, including commissions, or an average cost per share of $23.93. The remaining dollar value of shares authorized to be purchased under the share repurchase program is $49.4 million at September 30, 2011.