Note 13. Employee Benefit Plans

401(k) Plan:

The Company provides a deferred salary reduction plan (“Plan”) under Section 401(k) of the Internal Revenue Code covering substantially all employees. After 90 days of service the Company matches 100% of employee contributions up to 3% of compensation and 50% of employee contributions on the next 2% of compensation. The Company’s contribution to the Plan for the years ended December 2025, 2024, and 2023, was $2.0 million, $1.9 million and $1.8 million, respectively.

Equity Incentive Plans:

The Compensation Committee of the Company’s Board of Directors may grant or award eligible participants stock options, restricted stock, restricted stock units, stock appreciation rights, and other stock-based awards or any combination of awards (collectively referred to herein as "Rights"). At December 31, 2025, the Company had one active equity incentive plan available for future grants, the Omnibus Incentive Plan, which was approved on May 22, 2025, and has 1,679,333 Rights available for future grants or awards.

The Company’s 2015 Stock Incentive Plan expired on March 23, 2025, and has no rights issued or outstanding at December 31, 2025.

Stock Options:

A summary of the activity in these stock option plans is presented in the following table:

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At December 31, 2025, there are no outstanding stock options.

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The Company did not recognize any stock option-based compensation expense for the year ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023, respectively, as all stock options are fully vested.

The intrinsic value of options exercised during the year ended December 31, 2025 and 2024 was $206 thousand and $69 thousand, respectively. No stock options are outstanding or exercisable at December 31, 2025.  Cash received from options exercised under all share-based payment arrangements for the period ended December 31, 2025, was $153 thousand.

No options vested during the year ended December 31, 2025, and 2024, respectively. The income tax benefit recognized for the exercise of options during the periods ended December 31, 2025, 2024, and 2023 was $13 thousand, $14 thousand, and $55 thousand, respectively.

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Restricted Stock Awards:

A summary of the activity of the Company’s unvested restricted stock awards for the year ended December 31, 2025 is presented below:

The following table summarizes activity relating to non-vested restricted stock awards:

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The Company measures the fair value of restricted stock awards based on the price of the Company’s common stock on the grant date, and compensation expense is recorded over the vesting period. The compensation expense for restricted stock awards during the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023, was $1.9 million, $1.6 million, and $1.4 million, respectively. As of December 31, 2025, there was $3.2 million of unrecognized compensation cost related to non-vested restricted stock awards granted under the plan. The cost is expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of 2.13 years. The grant-date fair value of restricted stock awards vested was $1.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2025.

Stock Appreciation Rights ("SARs"):

When SARs are issued, they are assigned an exercisable price based on the closing stock price on the date of grant.  The SARs are recorded at fair market value and adjusted through salaries and employee benefits expense. The SAR’s will be settled through cash based on the difference of Company’s closing stock price on exercise date and original grant date stock price.

There was no SARs compensation expense for the year ended December 31, 2025, and $25 thousand and ($70) thousand for the years ended December 31, 2024, and 2023. The credit adjustment for the year ended December 31, 2023, is related to the fair value evaluation of SARs.

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A summary of the status of SARs plans is presented in the following table:

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As of December 31, 2024, all SARs have been exercised, and none are outstanding.