Share-Based Compensation

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2019

Note 9. Share-Based Compensation

The Company has adopted an employee stock purchase plan and offers share-based compensation through its equity compensation plan. Share-based compensation arrangements may include stock options, restricted and unrestricted stock awards, restricted stock units, performance units and stock appreciation rights. Accounting standards require all share-based payments to employees to be valued using a fair value method on the date of grant and to be expensed based on that fair value over the applicable vesting period. The Company accounts for forfeitures during the vesting period as they occur.

The 2016 Incentive Stock Plan (the Incentive Stock Plan) permits the issuance of up to 300,000 shares of common stock for awards to key employees and non-employee directors of the Company and its subsidiaries in the form of stock options, restricted stock, restricted stock units, stock appreciation rights, stock awards and performance units. As of March 31, 2019 only restricted stock has been granted under the Incentive Stock Plan.

Restricted stock activity for the three months ended March 31, 2019 is summarized below:

	Shares		Weighted Average Grant Date Fair Value
Nonvested, January 1, 2019		13,689	$	27.51
Issued		16,661		21.68
Vested		-		-
Forfeited		-		-
Nonvested, March 31, 2019		30,350	$	24.31

The weighted average period over which nonvested awards are expected to be recognized is 1.73 years.

The fair value of restricted stock granted during the three months ended March 31, 2019 was $361 thousand.

The remaining unrecognized compensation expense for nonvested restricted stock shares totaled $501 thousand as of March 31, 2019.

Stock-based compensation expense was $50 thousand and $8 thousand for the three months ended March 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively.

Under the Company's Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP), substantially all employees of the Company and its subsidiaries can authorize a specific payroll deduction from their base compensation for the periodic purchase of the Company's common stock. Shares of stock are issued quarterly at a discount to the market price of the Company's stock on the day of purchase, which can range from 0-15% and was set at 5% for 2018 and for the first three months of 2019.

862 shares were purchased under the ESPP during the three months ended March 31, 2019. At March 31, 2019, the Company had 241,074 remaining shares reserved for issuance under this plan.