Share-Based Payments

On September 23, 2009, our board of directors approved the Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance, Inc., 2009 Equity Incentive Plan (as amended from time to time, the "LTIP"). The LTIP provides for grants of restricted common stock, RSUs and other equity-based awards up to an aggregate of 7.5% of the issued and outstanding shares of our common stock. The LTIP is administered by the compensation committee of our board of directors (the "Compensation Committee") and all grants under the LTIP must be approved by the Compensation Committee.

We recognized stock-based compensation expense of $13.6 million, $13.3 million and $7.1 million during 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively, related to restricted stock and RSU vesting.

The following table summarizes the grants, vesting and forfeitures of restricted common stock and RSUs during 2018, 2017 and 2016:



	Type	Restricted Stock		RSUs		Grant Date Fair Value ($ in thousands)
Outstanding at December 31, 2015		107,385		1,242,810
	Grant	92,056		903,068		16,477
	Vested	(49,331	)	(397,030	)	N/A
	Forfeiture	—		(45,073	)	N/A
Outstanding at December 31, 2016		150,110		1,703,775
	Grant	27,700		912,916		17,496
	Vested	(72,249	)	(938,541	)	N/A
	Forfeiture	—		(45,404	)	N/A
Outstanding at December 31, 2017		105,561		1,632,746
	Grant	28,070		1,006,800		19,148
	Vested	(67,934	)	(739,388	)	N/A
	Forfeiture	—		(47,201	)	N/A
Outstanding at December 31, 2018		65,697		1,852,957

Below is a summary of restricted stock and RSU vesting dates as of December 31, 2018:



Vesting Year	Restricted Stock	RSU	Total Awards
2019	60,803	889,734	950,537
2020	4,894	628,310	633,204
2021	—	334,913	334,913
Total	65,697	1,852,957	1,918,654

At December 31, 2018, we had unrecognized compensation expense of approximately $30.8 million and $0.8 million, respectively, related to the vesting of RSUs and restricted stock awards noted in the table above.

RSU Deliveries

During 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively, we delivered 378,855, 200,859 and 236,782 shares of common stock for 741,210, 938,541 and 397,030 vested RSUs, respectively. We allow RSU participants 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 participant, results in a cash payment to the Manager related to this tax liability and a corresponding adjustment to additional paid in capital on the consolidated statement of changes in stockholders' equity. The adjustments were $4.8 million, $2.3 million and $2.6 million in 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively and is included as a reduction of capital related to our equity incentive plan in the consolidated statement of changes in stockholders' equity.