Share-Based Payments

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2016

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

On September 23, 2009, the Company’s board of directors approved the Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance, Inc., 2009 Equity Incentive Plan (the “LTIP”). The LTIP provides for grants of restricted common stock, restricted stock units ("RSUs") and other equity-based awards up to an aggregate of 7.5% of the issued and outstanding shares of the Company’s common stock (on a fully diluted basis). The LTIP is administered by the compensation committee of the Company’s board of directors (the “Compensation Committee”) and all grants under the LTIP must be approved by the Compensation Committee.

The Company recognized stock-based compensation expense of $1,668 for the three months ended March 31, 2016, related to restricted stock and RSU vesting. The Company recognized stock-based compensation expense of $1,117 for the three months ended March 31, 2015, related to restricted stock and RSU vesting. The following table summarizes the activity related to restricted common stock and RSUs during the three months ended March 31, 2016:



	Type	Date	Restricted Stock	RSUs		Estimate Fair Value on Grant Date	Initial Vesting	Final Vesting
Outstanding at December 31, 2015			340,064	1,242,810
	Cancelled upon delivery	January 2016	—	(318,160	)	n/a	n/a	n/a
	Forfeiture	January 2016	—	(1,667	)	n/a	n/a	n/a
	Grant	February 2016	—	47,028		$729	(1)	(1)
	Grant	March 2016	—	5,095		$81	December 2016	December 2017
Outstanding at March 31, 2016			340,064	975,106

(1) These awards vest based upon the achievement of certain conditions.

Below is a summary of expected restricted common stock and RSU vesting dates as of March 31, 2016.



Vesting Date	Shares Vesting	RSU Vesting	Total Awards
April 2016	4,627	—	4,627
June 2016	—	543	543
July 2016	4,158	—	4,158
October 2016	4,158	—	4,158
December 2016	28,920	351,244	380,164
January 2017	3,737	—	3,737
April 2017	3,745	—	3,745
June 2017	—	544	544
July 2017	2,580	—	2,580
October 2017	2,577	—	2,577
December 2017	28,923	347,846	376,769
January 2018	1,330	—	1,330
April 2018	1,331	—	1,331
June 2018	—	544	544
December 2018	16,670	220,521	237,191
	102,756	921,242	1,023,998

At March 31, 2016, the Company had unrecognized compensation expense of approximately $1,564 and $14,297, respectively, related to the vesting of restricted stock awards and RSUs noted in the table above.

RSU Deliveries

During the three months ended March 31, 2016, the Company delivered 190,003 shares of common stock for 318,160 vested RSUs. The Company allows holders of RSUs to settle their tax liabilities with a reduction of their share delivery from the originally granted and vested RSUs. The amount, when agreed to by the holder, results in a cash payment to the Manager related to this tax liability and a corresponding adjustment to additional paid-in-capital on the condensed consolidated statement of changes in stockholders' equity. The adjustment was $2,348 for the three months ended March 31, 2016, and is included as a component of the capital decrease related to the Company's equity incentive plan in the condensed consolidated statement of changes in stockholders’ equity.