Earnings Per Share

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2021

The Company uses the two-class method of computing net earnings per common shares. The Company's non-vested share-based awards are considered participating securities pursuant to the two-class method.

During the year ended December 31, 2021, the Company entered into forward sale agreements to sell shares of common stock through the Company's at-the-market equity offering program. The Company considered the accounting guidance governing financial instruments and derivatives to account for these agreements and concluded that it was not a liability as it did not embody obligations to repurchase our shares of common stock nor did it embody obligations to issue a variable number of shares for which the monetary value was predominately fixed, varying with something other than the fair value of the shares, or varying inversely in relation to the shares. In addition, the Company evaluated whether the agreements met the derivative and hedging guidance scope exception to be accounted for as an equity instrument and concluded that the agreements can be classified as equity.

The Company used the treasury method to determine the dilution from the forward equity agreements during the period of time prior to settlement. The number of weighted-average shares outstanding used in the computation of earnings per common share for the year ended December 31, 2021 included the effect from the assumed issuance of 0.7 million shares of common stock pursuant to the settlement of the forward equity agreements at the contractual price, less the assumed repurchase of the common stock at the average market price using the proceeds of approximately $23.1 million, adjusted for costs to borrow. For the year ended December 31, 2021, 1,682 weighted-average incremental shares of common stock were excluded from the computation of weighted-average common shares outstanding - diluted, as the impact was anti-dilutive.

The table below sets forth the computation of basic and diluted earnings per common share for the three years in the period ended December 31, 2021.


	YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31,
Dollars in thousands, except per share data	2021		2020		2019
Weighted average common shares
Weighted average common shares outstanding	144,411,835		135,666,503		129,735,723
Non-vested shares	(1,774,669)		(1,736,358)		(1,736,022)
Weighted average common shares - basic	142,637,166		133,930,145		127,999,701

Weighted average common shares - basic	142,637,166		133,930,145		127,999,701
Dilutive effect of forward equity	—		6,283		—
Dilutive effect of employee stock purchase plan	73,062		70,512		84,283
Weighted average common shares - diluted	142,710,228		134,006,940		128,083,984


Net income	$	66,659	$	72,195	$	39,185
Dividends paid on nonvested share-based awards	(2,154)		(2,083)		(2,075)

Net income applicable to common stockholders	$	64,505	$	70,112	$	37,110





Basic earnings per common share	$	0.45	$	0.52	$	0.29


Diluted earnings per common share	$	0.45	$	0.52	$	0.29