Stock-Based Compensation

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

Share-based Payment Arrangement [Abstract]

STOCK-BASED COMPENSATIONAll stock-based awards are subject to the terms of the CareTrust REIT, Inc. and CTR Partnership, L.P. Incentive Award Plan (the “Plan”). The Plan provides for the granting of stock-based compensation, including stock options, restricted stock, performance awards, restricted stock units and other incentive awards to officers, employees and directors in connection with their employment with or services provided to the Company.

Restricted Stock Awards— In connection with the separation of the healthcare business and real estate business of The Ensign Group, Inc. (“Ensign”) into two separate and independently publicly traded companies (the “Spin-Off”), employees of Ensign who had unvested shares of restricted stock were given one share of CareTrust REIT unvested restricted stock totaling 207,580 shares at the Spin-Off. These restricted shares are subject to a time vesting provision only and the Company does not recognize any stock compensation expense associated with these awards. As of September 30, 2020, there were 1,760 unvested restricted stock awards outstanding that were issued in connection with the Spin-Off.

In January 2020 and March 2020, the Compensation Committee of the Company’s Board of Directors granted 27,000 and 107,790 shares of restricted stock, respectively, to officers and employees. Each share had a fair market value on the date of grant of $22.18 and $19.06 per share, respectively, based on the closing market price of the Company’s common stock on that date, and the shares vest in four equal annual installments beginning on the first anniversary of the grant date. Additionally, in March 2020, the Compensation Committee granted 107,790 performance stock awards to officers. Each share had a fair market value on the date of grant of $19.06 per share, based on the closing market price of the Company’s common stock on that date. Performance stock awards are subject to both time and performance based conditions and vest over a one- to four-year period. The amount of performance awards that will ultimately vest is dependent on the Company’s Normalized Funds from Operations (“NFFO”) per share, as defined by the Compensation Committee, meeting or exceeding fiscal year over year growth of 5.0% or greater.

In April 2020, the Compensation Committee of the Company's Board of Directors granted 27,611 shares of restricted stock to members of the Board of Directors. Each share had a fair market value on the date of grant of $16.48 per share, based on the closing market price of the Company's common stock on that date, and the shares vest in full on the earlier to occur of April 29, 2021 or the Company’s 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.

The following table summarizes the stock-based compensation expense recognized (dollars in thousands):


	For the Three Months Ended September 30,				For the Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2020		2019		2020		2019
Stock-based compensation expense	$	972	$	981	$	2,819	$	3,122

As of September 30, 2020, there was $6.5 million of unamortized stock-based compensation expense related to unvested awards and the weighted-average remaining vesting period of such awards was 2.5 years.