Capital Stock and Equity Awards

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2017

Stockholders' Equity Note [Abstract]

Capital Stock and Equity Awards

Capital Stock and Equity Awards

The Company issued 210,081 common shares in the six months ended June 30, 2017 with 185,159 new shares related to stock option exercises and 24,922 new shares related to vesting of RSUs. The total common shares outstanding increased from 29,257,566 at December 31, 2016 to 29,467,647 at June 30, 2017.

The Company declared the following dividends during the first six months of 2017 and 2016:

Date of Declaration	Dividend per Common Share		Payable to Shareholders of Record on	Payment Date	Total Amount
2017
February 14, 2017	$	0.30	March 13, 2017	March 31, 2017	$	8.9	million
May 2, 2017	$	0.30	June 12, 2017	June 30, 2017	$	8.9	million
	$	0.60			$	17.8	million
2016
February 16, 2016	$	0.20	March 14, 2016	March 28, 2016	$	5.8	million
May 3, 2016	$	0.20	June 13, 2016	June 30, 2016	$	5.9	million
	$	0.40			$	11.7	million

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 under such plan.

Employees are eligible to receive non-qualified stock options, incentive stock options, share appreciation rights, performance shares, restricted shares, restricted share units (“RSUs”), and other awards under the 2014 LTIP. In May 2017, the Company's shareholders approved an amendment to the 2014 LTIP to increase the number of common shares authorized for issuance by 1,000,000, with only 500,000 of such additional shares to be available for issuance as awards that are not share appreciation rights or share option awards. The maximum number of shares available for issuance under the 2014 LTIP is 4,171,150, and at June 30, 2017, 1,865,141 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, restricted share units, and other awards under the 2014 Director Plan. The maximum number of shares available for issuance under the 2014 Director Plan is 50,000, and at June 30, 2017, 32,994 shares are available for grant.

The Board of Directors has granted awards under the 2014 LTIP and 2014 Director Plan to the Company’s employees and directors. Non-qualified stock options granted under the 2014 LTIP vest over a three year period. RSUs granted under the 2014 LTIP and 2014 Director Plan vest over one to five year periods, depending upon the award.

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), and in the case of the 2014 LTIP for Good Reason (as defined) following a Change in Control as defined in the applicable plans.

Options

The following table summarizes the option activity:

	Six Months Ended June 30,
	2017				2016
	Shares		Weighted- Average Exercise Price		Shares		Weighted- Average Exercise Price
Outstanding:
Beginning of period	2,234,699		$	22.84	2,058,085		$	18.11
Granted	205,244		$	42.24	706,203		$	32.07
Exercised	(443,114	)	$	18.72	(231,916	)	$	15.95
Forfeited	(50,062	)	$	27.97	(3,362	)	$	21.00
End of period	1,946,767		$	25.69	2,529,010		$	22.20
Exercisable, end of period	992,395		$	20.95	1,017,643		$	17.01

RSUs

The following table summarizes the RSU activity for the six months ended June 30, 2017 and 2016: 

	Six Months Ended June 30,
	2017				2016
	Shares		Weighted- Average Grant Date Fair Value		Shares	Weighted- Average Grant Date Fair Value
Unvested, beginning of period	196,800		$	24.38	234,922	$	21.00
Granted	119,312		$	42.19	60,291	$	32.03
Vested	(39,113	)	$	32.01	—	$	—
Forfeited	(19,743	)	$	24.06	—	$	—
Unvested, end of period	257,256		$	31.50	295,213	$	23.25

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 June 30,				Six Months Ended June 30,
	2017		2016		2017		2016
	(in thousands)
Share based compensation expense	$	1,784	$	1,498	$	3,578	$	2,687
U.S. tax benefit on share based compensation expense	477		421		946		757

As of June 30, 2017, the Company had $10.4 million of unrecognized share based compensation expense expected to be charged to earnings over a weighted-average period of 2.1 years. The weighted-average remaining contractual life of the options outstanding and options exercisable was 4.6 years and 3.8 years, respectively.