Stock-based Compensation

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2012

Stock-Based Compensation [Abstract]

Disclosure of Compensation Related Costs, Share-based Payments

Stock-Based Compensation

The Compensation Committee of the Company’s Board of Directors is responsible for the administration of the Company’s stock incentive plans, which include the balance of shares remaining under the 2007 Long Term Incentive Plan (the "2007 LTIP) and the 2011 Long Term Incentive Plan (the "2011 LTIP") which was approved by the shareholders in May 2011 and authorized the maximum aggregate number of shares to be issued of 3,000,000. In general, the Company's plans provide for grants of restricted stock and stock options to be issued with a per-share price equal to the fair market value of a share of common stock on the date of grant.  Option terms are specified at each grant date, but are generally are 10 years from the date of issuance.  Options generally vest over a three to five year period.  

For the three months ended March 31, 2012 and 2011, compensation expense related to stock based awards outstanding for the periods was $774,000 and $635,000, respectively.  

During the first quarter of 2012, the Company granted options to purchase 262,051 shares of common stock. The weighted average fair value of the options granted in the three months ended March 31, 2012 was $4.08 using the Black Scholes option pricing model with the following assumptions:

Expected life of options	6.2 years
Expected volatility	68.5	%
Risk-free interest rate	1.42	%
Dividend yield	—	%

The Company applies a 5.5% forfeiture rate to its option grants.

During the three months ended March 31, 2012, the Company received proceeds of approximately $13,000 upon the exercise of 2,226 options. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, no options were exercised.