Capital Stock and Equity Awards

The Company issued 221,139 common shares in the six months ended June 30, 2018 with 177,835 new shares related to stock option exercises and 43,304 new shares related to vesting of RSUs. The total common shares outstanding increased from 29,696,682 at December 31, 2017 to 29,917,821 at June 30, 2018.

The Company declared the following dividends during the first six months of 2018 and 2017:



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

2018
February 22, 2018	$	0.30	March 12, 2018	March 30, 2018	$	9.0	million
May 1, 2018	$	0.30	June 11, 2018	June 29, 2018	$	9.1	million
	$	0.60			$	18.1	million

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

Included in the total dividends for the six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 are $197,000 and $154,000 of dividend equivalents on RSUs, respectively. The balance of dividends payable was $500,870 at June 30, 2018 and $434,000 at December 31, 2017.

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 June 30, 2018, 1,692,615 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. The maximum number of shares available for issuance under the 2014 Director Plan is 50,000, and at June 30, 2018, 21,663 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 the option activity for the six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017:



	Six Months Ended June 30,
	2018				2017
	Shares		Weighted- Average Exercise Price		Shares		Weighted- Average Exercise Price
Outstanding:
Beginning of period	1,479,236		$	27.81	2,234,699		$	22.84
Granted	—		$	—	205,244		$	42.24
Exercised	(255,609	)	$	21.14	(443,114	)	$	18.72
Forfeited	(29,446	)	$	36.26	(50,062	)	$	27.97
End of period	1,194,181		$	29.04	1,946,767		$	25.69
Exercisable, end of period	876,816		$	26.59	992,395		$	20.95

All of the outstanding options vest over two 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 greater than or 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 was 4.1 years and 3.8 years, respectively.

RSUs

The following table summarizes the RSU activity for the six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017:



	Six Months Ended June 30,
	2018				2017
	Shares		Weighted- Average Grant Date Fair Value		Shares		Weighted- Average Grant Date Fair Value

Unvested, beginning of period	178,882		$	37.93	196,800		$	24.38
Granted	214,907		$	39.81	119,312		$	42.19
Vested	(63,191	)	$	40.92	(39,113	)	$	32.01
Forfeited	(4,454	)	$	41.04	(19,743	)	$	24.06
Unvested, end of period	326,144		$	38.55	257,256		$	31.50

The vesting period of RSUs granted to employees range from one to five 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.

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,
	2018		2017		2018		2017
	(in thousands)
Share based compensation expense	$	1,660	$	1,784	$	3,115	$	3,578
U.S. tax benefit on share based compensation expense	198		477		371		946

As of June 30, 2018, the Company had $11.9 million of unrecognized share based compensation expense expected to be charged to earnings over a weighted-average period of 2.1 years.