Capital Stock and Equity Awards

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Stockholders' Equity Note [Abstract]

The Company issued 96,037 common shares in the three months ended March 31, 2020. The new shares were related to vesting restricted share units (“RSUs”). The total common shares outstanding increased from 30,424,391 at December 31, 2019 to 30,520,428 at March 31, 2020.

The Company declared the following dividends during the first three months of 2020 and 2019:



Date of Declaration	Dividend per Common Share		Payable to Shareholders of Record on	Payment Date	Total Amount (thousands)

2020
February 19, 2020	$	0.30	March 16, 2020	March 31, 2020	$	9,269

2019
February 20, 2019	$	0.30	March 11, 2019	March 29, 2019	$	9,146

Included in the total dividends for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019 are $113,000 and $107,000, respectively, of dividend equivalents on unvested RSUs. The balance of dividends payable on unvested RSUs was $422,000 at March 31, 2020 and $623,000 at December 31, 2019.

Equity Incentive Plans

The Company’s shareholders have approved various equity incentive plans, including the Amended and Restated 2009 Equity Incentive Plan (the “Legacy Plan”), the 2014 Long Term Incentive Plan (“2014 LTIP”), and the 2014 Non-Employee Director Incentive Plan (“2014 Director Plan”) (collectively, the “Plans”). All awards issued under the Plans are issued at the discretion of the Board of Directors. Under the Legacy Plan, employees received non-qualified stock options. Options are outstanding under the Legacy Plan; however, no additional awards may be granted.

Employees are eligible to receive non-qualified stock options, incentive stock options, share appreciation rights, performance shares, restricted shares, RSUs, and other awards under the 2014 LTIP. The maximum number of shares available for issuance under the 2014 LTIP is 4,171,150, and at March 31, 2020, 1,404,379 shares are available for grant.

Non-employee directors of the Company are eligible to receive non-qualified stock options, share appreciation rights, performance shares, restricted shares, RSUs, and other awards under the 2014 Director Plan. At the 2019 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of the Company held on April 30, 2019, the Company's shareholders approved an amendment to the 2014 Director Plan. The Board of Directors of the Company had previously approved the amendment. The amendment increased the number of the Company's common shares authorized for issuance under the 2014 Director Plan by 100,000 shares. The maximum number of shares available for issuance under the 2014 Director Plan is 150,000, and at March 31, 2020, 101,746 shares are available for grant.

Generally, awards issued under the 2014 LTIP and 2014 Director Plan vest immediately in the event that an award recipient is terminated without Cause (as defined in the applicable plans), and in the case of the 2014 LTIP for Good Reason (as defined in the applicable plans), at any time following a Change in Control (as defined in the applicable plans).

Options

The following table summarizes option activity:



	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2020			2019
	Shares	Weighted- Average Exercise Price		Shares		Weighted- Average Exercise Price
Outstanding:
Beginning of period	643,851	$	30.41	1,115,324		$	29.02
Granted	—	$	—	—		$	—
Exercised	—	$	—	(125,349	)	$	29.47
Forfeited	—	$	—	(3,759	)	$	36.37
End of period	643,851	$	30.41	986,216		$	28.94
Exercisable, end of period	640,606	$	30.35	926,166		$	28.07

All of the outstanding options vest over three to four years and have a contractual life of seven years from the original date of grant. All of the outstanding options have an exercise price equal to the fair value of the underlying shares at the date of grant. The weighted-average remaining contractual life of the options outstanding and options exercisable at March 31, 2020 was 2.7 years and 2.7 years, respectively.

RSUs

The following table summarizes RSU activity:



	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2020				2019
	Shares		Weighted- Average Grant Date Fair Value		Shares		Weighted- Average Grant Date Fair Value

Unvested, beginning of period	340,368		$	41.50	300,142		$	39.22
Granted	179,016		$	43.55	167,295		$	42.07
Vested	(142,830	)	$	41.16	(109,545	)	$	39.93
Forfeited	(1,188	)	$	42.07	(1,398	)	$	40.26
Unvested, end of period	375,366		$	42.61	356,494		$	40.33

The vesting period of RSUs granted to employees range from one to three years and vest ratably over the respective vesting period, and the majority vest in three years. All RSUs granted to date to non-employee directors had a one year vesting period. The holders of RSUs are entitled to dividend equivalents. The dividend equivalents are settled in cash at the same time that the underlying RSUs vest and are subject to the same risk of forfeiture as the underlying shares. The fair value of the RSUs granted is based on the market price of the underlying shares at the date of grant.

Compensation Expense

Share based compensation expense is recognized on a straight line basis over the vesting period. The amount of expense and related tax benefit is summarized below:



	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2020		2019
	(in thousands)
Share based compensation expense	$	1,867	$	1,674
U.S. tax benefit on share based compensation expense	250		200

As of March 31, 2020, the Company had $14.5 million of unrecognized share based compensation expense expected to be charged to earnings over a weighted-average period of 2.2 years.