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

STOCK BASED AND DEFERRED COMPENSATION (Tables)

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2017

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



	Three Months Ended June 30,				Six Months Ended June 30,
	2017		2016		2017		2016
Stock-based compensation expense	$	2,490	$	2,555	$	5,785	$	7,313
Non-vested shares granted	—		—		416,500		493,865
Performance-based non-vested shares granted	—		—		154,120		66,698
Stock options exercised ⁽¹⁾	—		3,200		—		14,400
Restricted stock awards vested (includes performance-based awards)	6,190		29,465		289,764		334,550


(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
	June 30, 2017		December 31, 2016
Unrecognized stock-based compensation cost	$	24,115	$	18,528
Weighted average years expense recognition period	4.15		2.56
Total stock-based awards outstanding ⁽¹⁾	1,328,601		1,147,271


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