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Equity
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2021
Equity [Abstract]  
Equity Equity
Cash Dividends
Our Board of Directors approved a regular cash dividend of $0.04 per share on our common stock for each of the first and second quarters of 2021. We paid the first and the second quarter cash dividend in April and July 2021, respectively. The Board of Directors approved a $0.06 per share regular cash dividend on our common stock for each of the third and fourth quarters of 2021. We paid the third quarter dividend in October 2021 and the fourth quarter dividend is expected to be paid in January 2022.
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 market conditions for our common stock at the time, they authorized repurchases of up to $50 million under the program. In 2018 and 2019, the Company repurchased a total of 5,057,682 shares under the stock repurchase program for approximately $50 million in aggregate. In February 2020, the Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of the remaining $50 million available under the repurchase program. We did not repurchase any common stock in 2020. For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021, we repurchased 471,022 shares at an average price of $5.18 per share for approximately $2 million, which is reflected as treasury stock. Accordingly, as of September 30, 2021, the Company has repurchased a total of 5,528,704 shares under the stock repurchase program for approximately $52 million in aggregate, leaving approximately $48 million authorized and available for future repurchases under the program. Repurchases may be made from time to time in the open market, in privately negotiated transactions or by other means, as determined in the Company's sole discretion. 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 Corp. to purchase shares during any period or at all. Any shares acquired will be available for general corporate purposes.
Stock-Based Compensation
In February 2021, the Company granted awards of 1,832,941 shares of restricted stock units (“RSUs”), which will vest annually in equal amounts over three years and 997,840 performance-based restricted stock units (“PSUs”), which will cliff vest, if at all, at the end of a three year performance period. The fair value of these awards was approximately $14 million.
The RSUs awarded in February 2021 are solely time-based awards. Of the PSUs awarded in February 2021, (a) 50% of such will vest, if at all, based on a total stockholder return (“TSR”) performance metric (the “TSR PSUs”), which is defined as the capital gains per share of stock plus dividends paid assuming reinvestment, with TSR measured on an absolute basis and relative to the TSR of the 39 exploration and production companies in the Vanguard World Fund - Vanguard Energy ETF Index plus the S&P SmallCap 600 Value Index (collectively, the “Peer Group”) during the performance period; and (b) the other 50% of such will vest, if at all, based on the Company's average cash returned on invested capital (“CROIC PSUs”) over the performance period. Depending on the results achieved during the 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 250% of the TSR PSUs granted and from 0% to 200% of the CROIC PSUs granted.
The fair value of the RSUs and CROIC PSUs was determined using the grant date stock price. The fair value of the TSR PSUs was determined using a Monte Carlo simulation analysis to estimate the total shareholder return ranking of the Company, including a comparison against the Peer Group over the performance periods. The expected volatility of the Company’s common stock at the date of grant was estimated based on average volatility rates for the Company and selected guideline public companies. The dividend yield assumption was based on the then current annualized declared dividend. The risk-free interest rate assumption was based on observed interest rates consistent with the approximate three-year performance measurement period.