Stock Incentive Plans

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

Employee Benefits And Share Based Compensation [Abstract]

NOTE 8. STOCK INCENTIVE PLAN

In October 2012, the Company’s Board of Directors adopted and Bimini, then the Company’s sole stockholder, approved, the Orchid Island Capital, Inc. 2012 Equity Incentive Plan (the “Incentive Plan”) to recruit and retain employees, directors and other service providers, including employees of the Manager and other affiliates. The Incentive Plan provides for the award of stock options, stock appreciation rights, stock award, performance units, other equity-based awards (and dividend equivalents with respect to awards of performance units and other equity-based awards) and incentive awards. The Incentive Plan is administered by the Compensation Committee of the Company’s Board of Directors except that the Company’s full Board of Directors will administer awards made to directors who are not employees of the Company or its affiliates. The Incentive Plan provides for awards of up to an aggregate of 10% of the issued and outstanding shares of our common stock (on a fully diluted basis) at the time of the awards, subject to a maximum aggregate 4,000,000 shares of the Company’s common stock that may be issued under the Incentive Plan.

Restricted Stock Awards

On April 25, 2014, the Compensation Committee granted each of our non-employee directors 6,000 shares of restricted common stock subject to a three year vesting schedule whereby 2,000 shares of the award vest on the first, second and third anniversaries of the award date. Directors will have all the rights of a stockholder with respect to the awards, including the right to receive dividends and vote the shares. The awards are subject to forfeiture should the director no longer be a member of the Board of Directors of the Company prior to the respective vesting dates.

The table below presents information related to the Company’s restricted common stock at December 31, 2016 and 2015.

($ in thousands, except per share data)
	2016			2015
			Weighted			Weighted
			Average			Average
			Grant Date			Grant Date
	Shares		Fair Value	Shares		Fair Value
Unvested, beginning of period	16,000	$	12.23	24,000	$	12.23
Vested and issued	(8,000)		12.23	(8,000)		12.23
Unvested, end of period	8,000	$	12.23	16,000	$	12.23

Compensation expense during period		$	98		$	98
Unrecognized compensation expense, end of period		$	33		$	130
Intrinsic value, end of period		$	87		$	159
Weighted-average remaining vesting term (in years)			0.3			1.3

Stock Awards

The Company issues immediately vested common stock under the Incentive Plan to certain executive officers, employees and directors. The following table presents information related to fully vested common stock issued during the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015.

($ in thousands, except per share data)
		2016		2015
Fully vested shares granted⁽¹⁾		40,571		30,535
Weighted average grant date price	$	10.08	$	12.67
Compensation expense related to fully vested common share awards⁽²⁾	$	409	$	387

The table above includes 33,019 shares of fully vested shares which were granted in January and March 2016 with respect to service performed during 2015 and 21,715 shares of fully vested shares which were granted in January 2015 with respect to service performed during 2014.
Approximately $330,000 of compensation expense related to the 2016 share awards were accrued and recognized in 2015. Approximately $288,000 of the compensation expense related to the 2015 share awards were accrued and recognized in 2014.

Performance Units

The Company may issue performance units under the Incentive Plan to certain executive officers and employees. “Performance Units” vest after the end of a defined performance period, based on satisfaction of the performance conditions set forth in the performance unit agreement. When earned, each Performance Unit will be settled by the issuance of one share of the Company’s common stock, at which time the Performance Unit will be cancelled. The Performance Units contain non-forfeitable dividend equivalent rights which entitle the Participants to receive distributions declared by the Company on common stock, but do not include the right to vote the shares. Performance Units are subject to forfeiture should the participant no longer serve as an executive officer or employee for the Company. Compensation expense for the Performance Units are recognized over the remaining vesting period once it becomes probable that the performance conditions will be achieved.

The following table presents information related to Performance Units outstanding for the year ended December 31, 2016.

($ in thousands, except per share data)
	2016			2015
			Weighted			Weighted
			Average			Average
			Grant Date			Grant Date
	Shares		Fair Value	Shares		Fair Value
Unvested, beginning of period	7,508	$	13.32	-	$	-
Granted	41,500		10.00	7,508		13.32
Forfeited	(700)		10.00	-		-
Vested and issued	(3,003)		13.32	-		-
Unvested, end of period	45,305	$	10.33	7,508	$	13.32

Compensation expense during the period		$	206		$	46
Intrinsic value, at period end		$	491		$	75
Unrecognized compensation expense, at period end		$	256		$	54
Weighted average remaining vesting term (in years), at period end			1.3			1.4