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Equity
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2019
Equity [Abstract]  
Equity
Equity
Common Stock
On January 27, 2017, the Bankruptcy Court approved and confirmed our plan of reorganization (the “Plan”). The Plan contemplated the distribution of 40,000,000 shares of common stock in Berry Corp. On the Effective Date, 32,920,000 shares of common stock were distributed, pro rata, to holders of Unsecured Notes claims. On February 28, 2017 (the “Effective Date”), the Plan became effective and was implemented. The holders of Unsecured Claims received a right to receive their pro rata share of either (i) 7,080,000 shares of common stock in Berry Corp. or (ii) in the event that such holder irrevocably elected to receive a cash recovery, cash distributions from the Cash Distribution Pool. Since the Effective Date we have negotiated with claimants to settle their claims and in February 2019 we issued approximately 2,770,000 shares instead of 7,080,000 to resolve these claims.
Cash Dividends
On February 28, 2019, our board of directors approved a $0.12 per share quarterly cash dividend on our common stock for the first quarter of 2019, which was paid in April 2019. On May 8, 2019, our board of directors approved a $0.12 per share quarterly cash dividend on our common stock for the second quarter of 2019.
Stock Repurchase Program
In December 2018, our Board of Directors adopted a program for the opportunistic repurchase of up to $100 million of our common stock. Based on the Board’s evaluation of current market conditions for our common stock they authorized current repurchases of up to $50 million under the program. Purchases may be made from time to time in the open market, in privately negotiated transactions or otherwise. The manner, timing and amount of any purchases will be determined based on our evaluation of market conditions, stock price, compliance with outstanding agreements and other factors, may be commenced or suspended at any time without notice and does not obligate Berry Petroleum to purchase shares during any period or at all. Any shares acquired will be available for general corporate purposes. For the three months ended March 31, 2019, we repurchased 2,200,162 shares at an average price of $11.08 per share for $24 million, which is reflected as treasury stock. The Company has repurchased a total of 2,648,823 shares under the stock repurchase program for $28 million as of March 31, 2019.

Stock-Based Compensation
In March 2019, the Company granted awards of 706,314 shares of restricted stock units ("RSUs"), which will vest annually in equal amounts over three years and 553,902 performance-based restricted stock units ("PSUs"), which will cliff vest at two or three years. The fair value of these awards was approximately $16 million.
The RSUs awarded are service based awards. The PSUs awarded include a market objective measured against both absolute total stockholder return (“Absolute TSR”) and total stockholder return relative (“Relative TSR”), to the Vanguard World Fund - Vanguard Energy ETF index (the “Index”) over the performance period, assuming the reinvestment of dividends. Depending on the results achieved during the two or three year performance period, the actual number of shares that a grant recipient receives at the end of the period may range from 0% to 200% of the Target Shares granted.

The fair value of the PSUs was determined using a Monte Carlo simulation analysis to estimate the total shareholder return ranking of the Company, including a comparison against the Index over the performance periods. The expected volatility of the Company’s common stock at the date of grant was estimated based on blended historical average volatility rates for the Company and selected guideline public companies. The dividend yield assumption was based on the current annualized declared dividend. The risk-free interest rate assumption was based on observed interest rates consistent with the approximate two and three year performance measurement period.