Awards under the 2018 Plan may take the form of stock options, stock appreciation rights, restricted stock, restricted stock units and other equity-based and equity-related awards. Each share issued pursuant to a stock option and each share with respect to which a stock-settled stock appreciation right is exercised (regardless of the number of shares actually delivered) is counted as one share against the maximum limit under the 2018 Plan, and each share issued pursuant to an award of restricted stock or restricted stock units is counted as two shares against the maximum limit. Restricted stock is transferred immediately upon grant (and may be subject to a holding period), whereas restricted stock units have a vesting period that must expire, and in some cases performance or market conditions that must be satisfied before the stock is transferred. At July 31, 2022, there were 1,630,928 shares available for grant under the 2018 Plan.

We account for share-based compensation by estimating the fair value of time-based and performance-based restricted stock unit awards using the closing price of a share of our common stock on the date of grant. For market-based awards we use a Monte Carlo approach to estimate the value of the awards, which simulates the prices of the Company’s and each member of the performance peer groups' common stock price at the end of the relevant performance period, taking into account volatility and the specifics surrounding each total shareholder return metric under the relevant plan. We recognize these amounts as an operating expense in our condensed consolidated statements of income ratably over the requisite service period using the straight-line method, as adjusted for certain retirement provisions, and updated estimates of performance-based awards. All awards have been granted at no cost to the grantee and/or non-employee member of the Board.

The above awards reflect (a) long-term incentive compensation program grants for fiscal 2021 through 2023, which include a mix of time-based restricted stock units and performance-based restricted stock units (subject to three-year cumulative net income before net interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization ("EBITDA") and three-year average return on invested capital ("ROIC"), with further potential adjustments for three-year relative total shareholder return ("TSR")) (b) certain “make-whole” and sign-on grants, which include a mix of time-based restricted stock units and performance-based restricted stock units subject to EBITDA and ROIC, with further potential adjustments for TSR (c) a special strategic grant which, upon grant, included performance-based restricted stock units subject to the performance of the Company’s e-commerce and loyalty platforms (which performance period has been completed, and are now subject to time-based vesting), (d) special performance grants which include time-based restricted stock units, and (e) non-employee director equity awards, which include time-based restricted stock units.