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

STOCK BASED AND DEFERRED COMPENSATION (Tables)

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2017

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



	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2017		2016
Stock-based compensation expense	$	3,295	$	4,758
Non-vested shares granted	416,500		493,865
Performance-based non-vested shares granted	154,120		66,698
Stock options exercised ⁽¹⁾	—		11,200
Restricted stock awards vested (includes performance-based awards)	283,574		305,085


(1)	As of December 31, 2016, we have no remaining unexercised stock options.

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



	As of
	March 31, 2017		December 31, 2016
Unrecognized stock-based compensation cost	$	27,472	$	18,528
Weighted average years expense recognition period	3.28		2.56
Total stock-based awards outstanding ⁽¹⁾	1,367,271		1,147,271


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