6.EQUITY

As of March 31, 2020, the Company had 69,028 shares of common stock issued and 67,112 shares outstanding.

The Company’s shareholder approved equity plans are administered under the 2013 Stock Option Plan and the 2015 Equity Incentive Plan. The purpose of the equity plans is to retain the services of valued employees, directors, officers, agents, and consultants and to incentivize such persons to make contributions to the Company and motivate excellent performance.

Agent Equity Program

The Company provides agents and brokers the opportunity to elect to receive 5% of commissions earned from each completed residential real estate transaction in the form of common stock. If agents and brokers elect to receive portions of their commissions in common stock, they are entitled to receive the equivalent number of shares of common stock, based on the fixed monetary value of the commission payable. Prior to January 1, 2020, the Company recognized a 20% discount on these issuances as an additional cost of sales charge during the periods presented. Beginning in January 2020, the Company amended the Agent Equity Plan and changed the discount on issued shares from 20% to 10%.

During the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, the Company issued approximately 917 and 620 shares of common stock, respectively, to agents and brokers for of $8,794 and $6,210, respectively, net of discount.

Agent Growth Incentive Program

The Company administers an equity incentive program whereby agents and brokers become eligible to receive awards of the Company’s common stock through agent attraction and performance benchmarks. The incentive program encourages greater performance and awards agents with common stock based on achievement of performance milestones. Awards typically vest after performance benchmarks are reached and three years of subsequent service is provided to the Company. Share-based performance awards are based on a fixed-dollar amount of shares based on the achievement of performance metrics. As such, the awards are classified as liabilities until the number of share awards becomes fixed once the performance metric is achieved. For the three months ended March 31, 2020, the Company’s stock compensation attributable to the Agent Growth Incentive Program was $3,519, of which the total amount of stock compensation attributable to liability classified awards was $1,043. Stock compensation expense related to the Agent Growth Incentive Program is included in general and administrative expense in the condensed consolidated statements of comprehensive income (loss).

The following table illustrates changes in the Company’s stock compensation liability for the three months ended March 31, 2020:


Balance, December 31, 2019		$ 277
Estimated stock awards		1,043
Stock awards reclassified from liability to equity		(75)
Balance, March 31, 2020		$ 1,245

Stock Option Awards

During the three months ended March 31, 2020, the Company granted 152 stock options to employees with an estimated grant date fair value of $8.82 per share. The fair value was calculated using a Black Scholes-Merton option pricing model.

Stock Repurchase Plan

In December 2018, the Company’s board of directors (“the Board”) approved a stock repurchase program authorizing the Company to purchase up to $25 million of its common stock, which was later amended in November of 2019 to increase the authorized repurchase amount to $75 million. Purchases under the repurchase program may be made in the open market or through a 10b5-1 plan and are expected to comply with Rule 10b-18 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The timing and number of shares repurchased depends upon market conditions. The repurchase program does not require the Company to acquire a specific number of shares. The cost of the shares that are repurchased is funded from available working capital.

The repurchase program began on January 2, 2019 and was discontinued in March 2020.

For accounting purposes, common stock repurchased under the stock repurchase programs is recorded based upon the settlement date of the applicable trade. Such repurchased shares are held in treasury and are presented using the cost method. During the three months ended March 31, 2020, the Company repurchased 991 shares of common stock at a total cost of $10,305. These shares are considered issued but not outstanding.