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

STOCK BASED AND DEFERRED COMPENSATION (Tables)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2019

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



	Three Months Ended September 30,				Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2019		2018		2019		2018
Stock-based compensation expense	$	5,657	$	4,761	$	15,719	$	13,737
Non-vested shares granted	3,314		9,083		385,328		315,247
Performance-based non-vested shares granted	—		—		94,152		157,637
Restricted stock awards vested (includes performance-based awards)	32,369		2,710		435,292		321,422

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



	As of
	September 30, 2019		December 31, 2018
Unrecognized stock-based compensation cost	$	24,041	$	24,954
Weighted average years expense recognition period	2.42		2.24
Total equity awards outstanding ⁽¹⁾	1,269,806		1,301,745

(1)

Includes unvested restricted stock, performance-based awards (assuming 100% payout) and restricted stock units.