Stock-Based Compensation

The Company has various stock-based compensation plans. During the quarter ended January 31, 2017, the Company did not grant any stock-based compensation awards to employees or non-employee directors. During the nine-months ended January 31, 2017, the Board of Directors of the Company approved grants of performance-based restricted stock units (RSUs) to key employees and grants of service-based RSUs to key employees and non-employee directors. The employee performance-based RSUs totaled 36,058 units and the employee and non-employee director service-based RSUs totaled 25,322 units. The performance-based RSUs entitle the recipients to receive one share of the Company’s common stock per unit granted if applicable performance conditions are met and the recipient remains continuously employed with the Company until the units vest. The service-based RSUs entitle the recipients to receive one share of the Company’s common stock per unit granted if they remain continuously employed with the Company, or on the Board, until the units vest. All of the Company’s RSUs granted to employees cliff-vest three years from the grant date. The service-based RSUs granted to non-employee directors vest daily through the end of a two-year vesting period as long as the recipient continuously remains a member of the Board.

For the three- and nine-month periods ended January 31, 2017 and 2016, stock-based compensation expense was allocated as follows:



	Three Months Ended January 31,				Nine Months Ended January 31,
(in thousands)	2017		2016		2017		2016
Cost of sales and distribution	$	160	$	139	$	468	$	438
Selling and marketing expenses	253		254		755		784
General and administrative expenses	414		463		1,254		1,429
Stock-based compensation expense	$	827	$	856	$	2,477	$	2,651

During the nine months ended January 31, 2017, the Board of Directors of the Company also approved grants of 5,136 cash-settled performance-based restricted stock tracking units ("RSTUs") and 2,804 cash-settled service-based RSTUs for more junior level employees. Each performance-based RSTU entitles the recipient to receive a payment in cash equal to the fair market value of a share of the Company's common stock as of the payment date if applicable performance conditions are met and the recipient remains continuously employed with the Company until the units vest. The service-based RSTUs entitle the recipients to receive a payment in cash equal to the fair market value of a share of the Company's common stock as of the payment date if they remain continuously employed with the Company until the units vest. All of the RSTUs cliff-vest three years from the grant date. Since the RSTUs will be settled in cash, the grant date fair value of these awards is recorded as a liability until the date of payment. The fair value of each cash-settled RSTU award is remeasured at the end of each reporting period and the liability is adjusted, and related expense recorded, based on the new fair value. The Company recognized expense of $95 thousand and $94 thousand for the three-month periods ended January 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively, and $298 thousand and $595 thousand for the nine-month periods ended January 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively, related to RSTUs. A liability for payment of the RSTUs is included in the Company's balance sheets in the amount of $1.0 million and $1.2 million as of January 31, 2017 and April 30, 2016, respectively.