SHARE-BASED COMPENSATION PLANS

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2023

Share-Based Payment Arrangement [Abstract]

The Company maintains share-based compensation plans under the shareholder-approved 2011 Plan. The purpose of the share-based compensation plans is to provide officers, employees, and non-employee members of the Board of Directors of the Company with additional incentive to further the success of the Company. At March 31, 2023, 1,281,920 shares of the common stock of the Company were reserved, of which 413,800 shares are available to be issued.

The 2011 Plan incentive awards may consist of grants of incentive stock options, nonqualified stock options, stock appreciation rights, restricted stock, deferred stock units and performance shares. All employees and members of the Board of Directors of the Company and its subsidiaries are eligible to participate in the 2011 Plan. The 2011 Plan allows for the Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors to determine the type of incentive to be awarded, its term, manner of exercise, vesting and restrictions on shares. Generally, awards are nonqualified under the IRC, unless the awards are deemed to be incentive awards to employees at the Compensation Committee’s discretion.

The following table presents a summary of nonvested restricted shares activity for the three months ended March 31, 2023:


	Shares	Weighted Average Grant Date Fair Value
Nonvested shares, beginning of year	284,909	$	22.35
Granted	138,001	23.92
Forfeited	(14,774)	21.68
Vested	(85,321)	22.10
Nonvested shares, at period end	322,815	$	23.11

The following table presents restricted share compensation expense, with tax benefit information, and fair value of shares vested, for the three months ended March 31, 2023 and 2022:


	Three months ended March 31,
		2023		2022
Restricted share award expense		$	616	$	330
Restricted share award tax benefit		129		69
Fair value of shares vested		2,037		1,324

The unrecognized compensation expense related to the share awards totaled $5.2 million at March 31, 2023 and $4.6 million at December 31, 2022. The unrecognized compensation expense at March 31, 2023 is expected to be recognized over a weighted-average period of 2.3 years.

The Company maintains an employee stock purchase plan to provide employees of the Company with an opportunity to purchase Company common stock. Eligible employees may purchase shares in an amount that does not exceed the lesser of the IRS limit of $25,000 or 10% of their annual salary at the lower of 95% of the fair market value of the shares on the semi-annual offering date, or related purchase date. The purchases occur in March and September of each year. The Company reserved 350,000 shares of its common stock to be issued under the employee stock purchase plan. At March 31, 2023, 142,592 shares were available to be issued.

The following table presents information for the employee stock purchase plan for the three months ended March 31, 2023 and 2022:


	Three months ended March 31,
		2023		2022
Shares purchased		3,003		3,953
Weighted average price of shares purchased		$	21.85	$	22.46
Compensation expense recognized		3		8

The Company issues new shares or treasury shares, depending on market conditions, in its share-based compensation plans.