NOTE 11.  STOCK-BASED COMPENSATION PLAN

 

Under the Company’s 2005 Stock Incentive Plan (the “2005 Plan”), the Board of Directors has flexibility to determine the type and amount of awards to be granted to eligible participants, who must be employees, directors, officers or consultants of the Company or its subsidiaries.  The 2005 Plan allows for grants of incentive stock options, nonqualified stock options, restricted stock awards, stock appreciation rights, and restricted units.  The aggregate number of shares of common stock that may be granted through awards under the 2005 Plan to any employee in any calendar year may not exceed 500 shares.  The 2005 Plan will continue in effect until June 2015 unless terminated sooner.

 

During the three months ended March 31, 2012, the Company issued 98 stock options, under the Company’s 2005 Plan, to employees of the Company, which options granted will vest in three installments as follows: 39 shares shall vest on December 31, 2014 and the remaining shares shall vest equally on December 31, 2015 and December 31, 2016.

 

For computing the fair value of the stock-based awards, the fair value of each option grant has been estimated as of the date of grant using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model with the following assumptions:

 

 

 (a) Since the Company’s historical volatility was not representative of the ongoing future business, the Company’s historical volatility was based on a combination of the Company’s volatility and the historical volatility of a peer group of companies within similar industries and similar size as the Company.

 

Using these assumptions, the fair value of the stock options granted during the three months ended March 31, 2012 was $441, which will be amortized over the vesting period of the options.

 

The total non-cash stock compensation expense related to stock options and restricted stock recorded by the Company during the three months ended March 31, 2012 and 2011, respectively, was as follows:

 

 

The fair value of unvested restricted stock awards is determined based on the market price of our shares of common stock on the grant date.  As of March 31, 2012, there were 743 unvested stock options and unrecognized compensation cost of $2,138 related to unvested stock options, as well as 750 unvested restricted stock awards and unrecognized compensation cost of $536 related to unvested restricted stock awards.