Employee Stock Ownership Plan

6 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2021

Employee Stock Ownership Plan

Employee Stock Ownership Plan

8. Employee Stock Ownership Plan

On October 6, 2008, the Company established a leveraged employee stock ownership plan (“ESOP”) covering substantially all employees. The ESOP trust acquired 203,363 shares of Company common stock at a cost of $10.00 per share financed by a term loan with the Company. The employer loan and the related interest income are not recognized in the consolidated financial statements because the debt is serviced from Company contributions. Dividends payable on allocated shares are charged to retained earnings and are satisfied by the allocation of cash dividends to participant accounts or by utilizing the dividends as additional debt service on the ESOP loan. Dividends payable on unallocated shares are not considered dividends for financial reporting purposes. Shares held by the ESOP trust are allocated to participant accounts based on the ratio of the current year principal and interest payments to the total of the current year and future years’ principal and interest to be paid on the employer loan. Compensation expense is recognized based on the average fair value of shares released for allocation to participant accounts during the year with a corresponding credit to stockholders’ equity. The ESOP loan was repaid in full during the quarter ended December 31, 2015 and all shares have been allocated to participants in the plan; therefore, no compensation expense was recognized for the three or six-month periods ended March 31, 2021 and 2020. The ESOP trust held 117,914 and 119,654 shares of Company common stock at March 31, 2021 and September 30, 2020, respectively.