NOTE 12, 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 December 31, 2019, only restricted stock has been granted under the Incentive Stock Plan.

Restricted stock activity for the year ended December 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		(5,839	)		27.97
Forfeited		(4,578	)		26.63
Nonvested, Deceember 31, 2019		19,933		$	22.70

The weighted average period over which nonvested awards are expected to be recognized in compensation expense is 1.40 years.

The fair value of restricted stock granted during the year ended December 31, 2019 and 2018 was $361 thousand and $301 thousand, respectively.

The remaining unrecognized compensation expense for the shares granted during the year ended December 31, 2019 totaled $194 thousand as of December 31, 2019. For shares granted during the year ended December 31, 2018, the remaining compensation expense totaled $30 thousand as of December 31, 2019.

Stock-based compensation expense was $224 thousand and $160 thousand for the years ended December 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 for 2019 and 2018 was set at 5%.

Total stock purchases under the ESPP amounted to 3,666 shares during 2019 and 3,517 shares during 2018. At December 31, 2019, the Company had 238,270 remaining shares reserved for issuance under this plan.