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

STOCK BASED AND DEFERRED COMPENSATION (Tables)

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2018

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



	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2018		2017
Stock-based compensation expense	$	5,209	$	3,295
Non-vested shares granted	306,164		416,500
Performance-based non-vested shares granted	157,637		154,120
Restricted stock awards vested (includes performance-based awards)	301,575		283,574

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



	As of
	March 31, 2018		December 31, 2017
Unrecognized stock-based compensation cost	$	26,696	$	18,439
Weighted average years expense recognition period	2.97		2.48
Total equity awards outstanding ⁽¹⁾	1,377,061		1,269,657


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