Stock-Based Compensation

The Company has various stock-based compensation plans. During the quarter ended January 31, 2018, the Company did not grant any stock-based compensation awards to employees or non-employee directors. During the nine-months ended January 31, 2018, the Board of Directors of the Company approved grants of service-based RSUs and performance-based RSUs to key employees and non-employee directors. The employee performance-based RSUs totaled 33,080 units and the employee and non-employee director service-based RSUs totaled 22,250 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, for non-employee directors, serving on the Board of Directors) until the units vest. All of the Company’s RSUs granted to employees cliff-vest three years from the grant date.

For the three- and nine-month periods ended January 31, 2018 and 2017, stock-based compensation expense was allocated as follows:



	Three Months Ended January 31,				Nine Months Ended January 31,
(in thousands)	2018		2017		2018		2017
Cost of sales and distribution	$	256	$	160	$	777	$	468
Selling and marketing (income) expenses	183		253		385		755
General and administrative expenses	458		414		1,344		1,254
Stock-based compensation expense	$	897	$	827	$	2,506	$	2,477

During the nine months ended January 31, 2018, the Company also approved grants of 4,496 cash-settled performance-based restricted stock tracking units ("RSTUs") and 2,519 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 approximately $0.6 million and $0.1 million for the three-month periods ended January 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively, and approximately $1.0 million and $0.3 million for the nine-month periods ended January 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively. A liability for payment of the RSTUs is included in the Company's balance sheets in the amount of $1.6 million and $1.5 million as of January 31, 2018 and April 30, 2017, respectively.