Note 8 - Share-Based Compensation

In the first quarter of fiscal 2023, as part of the annual awards under the Company’s Long-Term Incentive Plan, the Compensation Committee of the Company’s Board of Directors granted 213,080 restricted stock units (“RSUs”) and 211,046 performance share awards to the Company’s key employees and officers under the Company’s 1993 Amended and Restated Stock Incentive Plan.

The RSUs have a five-year term and vest 20% per year commencing October 31, 2023. The aggregate fair value of all the RSUs granted was based on the market closing price of the underlying Class A common stock on the grant date and totaled $7 million. The compensation expense associated with the RSUs is recognized over the requisite service period of the awards, net of forfeitures, which for participants who were retirement eligible as of the grant date or who will become retirement eligible during the five-year term of the awards is the longer of two years or the period ending on the date retirement eligibility is achieved.

The performance share awards comprise two separate and distinct awards with different vesting conditions. Awards vest if the threshold level under the specified metric is met at the end of the approximately three-year performance period. For awards granted in the first quarter of fiscal 2023, the performance metrics are the Company’s recycled metal volume growth and its return on capital employed (“ROCE”). Award share payouts depend on the extent to which the performance goals have been achieved, which performance-based payout factors are adjusted by a total shareholder return (“TSR”) modifier based on the Company’s average TSR percentile rank relative to a designated peer group. The number of shares that a participant receives is equal to the number of performance shares granted multiplied by an initial payout factor based on recycled metal volume growth and ROCE, which ranges from a threshold of 50% to a maximum of 200%. The final payout factor is then determined by applying the TSR modifier to the initial payout factor within a certain range, with a maximum increase or decrease of 20%.

Half of the performance share awards granted by the Company during the first quarter of fiscal 2023 were based on the Company's recycled metal volume growth metric and half were based on its ROCE metric, in each case subject to a TSR modifier with performance measured over a three-year period consisting of the Company’s 2023, 2024, and 2025 fiscal years. The Company estimated the fair value of performance share awards granted in the first quarter of fiscal 2023 using a Monte-Carlo simulation model utilizing several key assumptions, including the following:

The estimated aggregate fair value of these performance share awards at the date of grant was $7 million. The Company accrues compensation cost for these performance share awards based on the probable outcome of achieving specified performance conditions, net of estimated forfeitures, over the requisite service period (or to the date a qualifying employment termination event entitles the recipient to a prorated award, if before the end of the service period). The Company reassesses whether achievement of the performance conditions is probable at each reporting date. If it is probable that the actual performance results will exceed the stated target performance conditions, the Company accrues additional compensation cost for the additional performance shares to be awarded irrespective of the TSR modifier, the effects of which are incorporated in the grant-date fair value of the awards. If, upon reassessment, it is no longer probable that the actual performance results will exceed the stated target performance conditions, or that it is no longer probable that the target performance conditions will be achieved, the Company reverses any recognized compensation cost for shares no longer probable of being issued. If the performance conditions are not achieved at the end of the performance period, all related compensation cost previously recognized is reversed. Performance share awards will be paid in Class A common stock as soon as practicable after the end of the requisite service period and vesting date of October 31, 2025.