Equity

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2020

Equity [Abstract]

Equity

Equity

Cash Dividends

Our Board of Directors approved a $0.12 per share quarterly cash dividend on our common stock for the first quarter of 2020, which we paid in April 2020. In April 2020, in connection with the current low oil price environment, we temporarily suspended our quarterly dividend until oil prices recover.

Stock Repurchase Program

In December 2018, our Board of Directors adopted a program for the opportunistic repurchase of up to $100 million of our common stock. Based on the Board’s evaluation of market conditions for our common stock at that time, they authorized initial repurchases of up to $50 million under the program. In February 2020, the Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of the remaining $50 million of our $100 million repurchase program. However, largely due to the uncertainty resulting from the COVID-19 and oil price environment, no such repurchases have yet been made. Repurchases may be made from time to time in the open market, in privately negotiated transactions or by other means, as determined in the Company's sole discretion. The manner, timing and amount of any purchases will be determined based on our evaluation of market conditions, stock price, compliance with outstanding agreements and other factors, may be commenced or suspended at any time without notice and does not obligate Berry Corp. to purchase shares during any period or at all. Any shares acquired will be available for general corporate purposes. The Company repurchased a total of 5,057,682 shares under the stock repurchase program for approximately $50 million as of December 31, 2019. For the three and six months ended June 30, 2020, we did not repurchase any shares under the stock repurchase program.

Stock-Based Compensation

In March 2020, the Company granted awards of 1,817,656 shares of restricted stock units (“RSUs”), which will vest annually in equal amounts over three years and 1,278,877 performance-based restricted stock units (“PSUs”), which will cliff vest, if at all, at the end of a three year performance period subject to both an absolute total stockholder return (“Absolute TSR”) performance metric and a total stockholder return relative (“Relative TSR”)

performance metric, as further discussed and defined below. The fair value of these awards was approximately $32 million.

The RSUs awarded are solely time-based awards. The PSUs awarded include a market objective measured against both Absolute TSR and Relative TSR to the Vanguard World Fund - Vanguard Energy ETF index (the “Index”) over the performance period, assuming the reinvestment of dividends. Depending on the results achieved during the three-year performance period, the actual number of shares that a grant recipient receives at the end of the period may range from 0% to 200% of the PSUs granted.

The fair value of the PSUs was determined using a Monte Carlo simulation analysis to estimate the total shareholder return ranking of the Company, including a comparison against the Index over the performance periods. The expected volatility of the Company’s common stock at the date of grant was estimated based on blended historical average volatility rates for the Company and selected guideline public companies. The dividend yield assumption was based on the then current annualized declared dividend. The risk-free interest rate assumption was based on observed interest rates consistent with the approximate three-year performance measurement period.