8. STOCK-BASED COMPENSATION

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2016

Disclosure of Compensation Related Costs, Share-based Payments [Abstract]

STOCK-BASED COMPENSATION

Stock Incentive Plans 

Options 

We have one long-term equity incentive plan which we refer to as the 2006 Equity Incentive Plan, which we amended and restated as of April 20, 2015 (the “Restated Plan”). The Restated Plan was approved by our stockholders at our annual stockholders meeting on June 11, 2015. As of March 31, 2016, we have reserved for issuance under the Restated Plan 12,000,000 shares of common stock. We can issue options, stock awards, stock appreciation rights and cash awards under the Restated Plan. Certain options granted under the Restated Plan to employees are intended to qualify as incentive stock options under existing tax regulations. Stock options generally vest over two to five years and expire five to ten years from the date of grant.

As of March 31, 2016, we had outstanding options to acquire 475,626 shares of our Common Stock, of which options to acquire 291,667 shares were exercisable. During the three months ended March 31, 2016, we granted stock options under our Restated Plan in the amount of 170,626 shares.

The following summarizes all of our option transactions during the quarter ended March 31, 2016:

Outstanding Options Under the 2006 Plan	Shares			Weighted Average Exercise Price per Common Share		Weighted Average Remaining Contractual Life (in years)		Aggregate Intrinsic Value
Balance, December 31, 2015		931,667		$	4.69
Granted		170,626			6.01
Exercised		(526,667	)		2.95
Canceled, forfeited or expired		(100,000	)		9.03
Balance, March 31, 2016		475,626			6.18		4.18	$	220,100
Exercisable at March 31, 2016		291,667			6.47		1.18		182,900

Aggregate intrinsic value in the table above represents the total pretax intrinsic value (the difference between our closing stock price on March 31, 2016 and the exercise price, multiplied by the number of in-the-money options) that would have been received by the holder had all holders exercised their options on March 31, 2016. Total intrinsic value of options exercised during the three months ended March 31, 2016 and 2015 was approximately $1.6 million and $1.9 million, respectively. As of March 31, 2016, total unrecognized stock-based compensation expense related to non-vested employee option awards was $557,000, which is expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of approximately 3.7 years. 

Restricted Stock Awards (“RSA’s”)

The 2006 Plan permits the award of restricted stock. As of March 31, 2016, we have issued a total of 4,186,322 RSA’s of which 610,962 were unvested.

The following summarizes all unvested RSA’s activities during the three months ended March 31, 2016:

				Weighted- Average
				Remaining		Weighted-
				Contractual		Average
	RSA’s			Term (Years)		Fair Value
RSA's outstanding at December 31, 2015		771,342				$	5.17
Changes during the period
Granted		725,114				$	5.90
Vested		(885,492	)			$	5.18
RSA's unvested at March 31, 2016		610,962			1.23	$	6.02

We determine the fair value of all RSA’s based on the closing price of our common stock on the award date.

Other stock bonus awards

The Restated Plan also permits the award of stock bonuses not subject to any future service period. These awards are valued and expensed based on the closing price of our common stock on the date of award. During the quarter ended March 31, 2016 no stock bonus awards were issued under the Restated Plan.

Plan Summary

In sum, of the 12,000,000 shares of common stock reserved for issuance under the Restated Plan, at March 31, 2016, we had issued 11,955,698 total shares between options, RSA’s and other stock awards. With options cancelled and RSA’s forfeited amounting to 2,925,009 and 59,053 shares, respectively, there remain 3,028,364 shares available under the Restated Plan for future issuance.