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

STOCK BASED AND DEFERRED COMPENSATION (Tables)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2016

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



	Three Months Ended September 30,				Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2016		2015		2016		2015
Stock-based compensation expense	$	3,729	$	3,953	$	11,042	$	12,418
Non-vested shares granted	3,500		20,600		497,365		424,387
Performance-based non-vested shares granted	—		—		66,698		66,187
Stock options exercised	—		3,000		14,400		146,640
Restricted stock awards vested (includes performance-based awards)	6,940		1,800		341,490		372,004

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



	As of
	September 30, 2016		December 31, 2015
Unrecognized stock-based compensation cost	$	21,678	$	18,545
Weighted average years expense recognition period	2.82		2.34
Total stock-based awards outstanding ⁽¹⁾	1,169,625		1,078,877


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