Stock-based Compensation

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2022

Share-based Payment Arrangement [Abstract]

On May 7, 2014, the stockholders of the Company approved the Air Lease Corporation 2014 Equity Incentive Plan (the “2014 Plan”). Upon approval of the 2014 Plan, no new awards may be granted under the Amended and Restated 2010 Equity Incentive Plan (the “2010 Plan”). As of March 31, 2022, the number of stock options (“Stock Options”) and restricted stock units (“RSUs”) authorized under the 2014 Plan is approximately 4,199,596. The Company has issued RSUs with four different vesting criteria: those RSUs that vest based on the attainment of book-value goals, those RSUs that vest based on the attainment of Total Shareholder Return (“TSR”) goals, time based RSUs that vest ratably over a time period of three years and RSUs that cliff vest at the end of a one or two year period.

As of March 31, 2022, the Company had no outstanding Stock Options and no unrecognized compensation costs related to outstanding Stock Options. For the three months ended March 31, 2022 and 2021, there were no stock-based compensation expenses related to Stock Options. For the three months ended March 31, 2022, the Company recorded a net reversal of previously recognized stock based compensation of $2.5 million. The Company recorded $5.4 million of stock-based compensation expense related to RSUs for the three months ended March 31, 2021. The decrease in stock-based compensation relates to reductions in the underlying vesting estimates of certain book value RSUs as the performance criteria is no longer being considered probable of being achieved.

Restricted Stock Units

Compensation cost for RSUs is measured at the grant date based on fair value and recognized over the vesting period. The fair value of book value and time based RSUs is determined based on the closing market price of the Company’s Class A common stock on the date of grant, while the fair value of RSUs that vest based on the attainment of Total Shareholder Return (“TSR”) goals is determined at the grant date using a Monte Carlo simulation model. Included in the Monte Carlo simulation model were certain assumptions regarding a number of highly complex and subjective variables, such as expected volatility, risk-free interest rate and expected dividends. To appropriately value the award, the risk-free interest rate is estimated for the time period from the valuation date until the vesting date and the historical volatilities were estimated based on a historical timeframe equal to the time from the valuation date until the end date of the performance period.

During the three months ended March 31, 2022, the Company granted 629,903 RSUs of which 137,729 are TSR RSUs and 220,437 are book value RSUs. The following table summarizes the activities for the Company’s unvested RSUs for the three months ended March 31, 2022:


	Unvested Restricted Stock Units
	Number of Shares	Weighted-Average Grant-Date Fair Value
Unvested at December 31, 2021	1,571,415	$	43.88
Granted	629,903	$	48.06
Vested	(471,867)	$	42.23
Forfeited/canceled	(146,306)	$	40.03
Unvested at March 31, 2022	1,583,145	$	46.11
Expected to vest after March 31, 2022	1,399,784	$	46.74

As of March 31, 2022, there was $47.5 million of unrecognized compensation cost related to unvested stock-based payments granted to employees. Total unrecognized compensation cost will be recognized over a weighted-average remaining period of 2.34 years.