Stock Based Compensation

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

Disclosure Of Compensation Related Costs Sharebased Payments [Abstract]

NOTE 13 - STOCK BASED COMPENSATION

During 2012, the Company, with the approval of shareholders, created the 2012 Equity Incentive Plan (the “Plan”). The Plan permits the award of up to 500 thousand shares to the Company’s directors and employees to promote the Company’s long-term financial success by motivating performance through long-term incentive compensation and to better align the interests of its employees with those of its shareholders. There were service time based restricted stock awards granted, under the Plan, totaling 20,747 shares during 2016 and 244,105 shares during 2015. There were also 82,990 performance based restricted stock awards granted in 2016 and 132,620 performance based restricted stock awards granted in 2015. The actual number of performance based stock awards issued will depend on certain performance conditions which are mainly average return on equity compared to a group of peer companies over a three year vesting period.

The restricted stock awards were granted with a fair value price equal to the market price of the Company’s common stock at the date of grant. Expense recognized for the Plan was $892 thousand for the year ended 2016, $486 thousand for 2015 and $116 thousand for 2014. As of December 31, 2016, there was $2.6 million of total unrecognized compensation expense related to the non-vested shares granted under the Plan. The remaining cost is expected to be recognized over the next 2 years.

The following is the activity under the Plan during the years ended December 31, 2016:

	2016
	Maximum Awarded Units			Weighted Average Grant Date Fair Value
Beginning balance		493,279		$	7.90
Granted		103,737			8.98
Vested		0			0
Forfeited		(97,626	)		7.00
Ending balance		499,390		$	8.30

- Definition

The entire disclosure for compensation-related costs for equity-based compensation, which may include disclosure of policies, compensation plan details, allocation of equity compensation, incentive distributions, equity-based arrangements to obtain goods and services, deferred compensation arrangements, employee stock ownership plan details and employee stock purchase plan details.

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