Meritage Homes Corporation Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

STOCK BASED AND DEFERRED COMPENSATION (Tables)

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2016

Below is a summary of compensation expense and stock award activity (dollars in thousands):



	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2016		2015
Stock-based compensation expense	$	4,758	$	4,630
Non-vested shares granted	493,865		388,787
Performance-based non-vested shares granted	66,698		66,187
Stock options exercised	11,200		143,440
Restricted stock awards vested (includes performance-based awards)	305,085		326,070

The following table includes additional information regarding our Plan (dollars in thousands):



	As of
	March 31, 2016		December 31, 2015
Unrecognized stock-based compensation cost	$	29,053	$	18,545
Weighted average years expense recognition period	3.34		2.34
Total equity awards outstanding ⁽¹⁾	1,271,515		1,078,877


(1)	Includes options outstanding and unvested restricted stock and performance-based awards and restricted stock units.