10. Equity Incentive Plans, Employee Stock Purchase Plan and Stock-Based Compensation

2004 Equity Incentive Plan and 2018 Equity Incentive Plan

In September 2018, the Company adopted the 2018 Equity Incentive Plan (“2018 Plan”), which became effective on September 25, 2018. As a result, the Company will not grant any additional awards under the 2004 Equity Incentive Plan (“2004 Plan”). The terms of the 2004 Plan and applicable award agreements will continue to govern any outstanding awards thereunder. In addition to the shares of common stock reserved for future issuance under the 2004 Plan that were added to the 2018 Plan upon its effective date, the Company initially reserved 2,300,000 shares of common stock for issuance under the 2018 Plan. In addition, the number of shares of common stock reserved for issuance under the 2018 Plan will automatically increase on the first day of January for a period of up to ten years, commencing on January 1, 2019, in an amount equal to 5% of the total number of shares of the Company’s capital stock outstanding on the last day of the preceding year, or a lesser number of shares determined by the Company’s board of directors. As a result, common stock reserved for issuance under the 2018 Plan was increased by 2,287,605 shares on January 1, 2021.  As of March 31, 2021, the Company had 1,787,323 shares available for grant under the 2018 Plan.

The following table summarizes option activity under the Company’s 2004 Plan and 2018 Plan:

The aggregate intrinsic value was calculated as the difference between the exercise prices of the underlying stock option awards and the estimated fair value of the Company’s common stock on the date of exercise. For the three months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020, the aggregate intrinsic value of stock options exercised was $1.9 million and $76,000, respectively, determined at the date of the option exercise.

Employee Stock Options Valuation

For determining stock-based compensation expense, the fair-value-based measurement of each employee stock option was estimated as of the date of grant using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model with assumptions as follows:

Using the Black-Scholes option-valuation model, the weighted-average estimated grant-date fair value of employee stock options granted during the three ended March 31, 2021 and 2020 was $15.13 and $4.94 per share, respectively.

Restricted Stock Units

During the three months ended March 31, 2021, the Company granted 1,435,750 shares of restricted common stock units (“RSUs”) to certain employees. These RSUs vest annually and will become fully vested over four years.  

A summary of the status and activity of non-vested RSUs during the three months ended March 31, 2021 is as follows:

2018 Employee Stock Purchase Plan

In September 2018, the Company adopted the 2018 Employee Stock Purchase Plan (“ESPP”), which became effective on September 26, 2018, in order to enable eligible employees to purchase shares of the Company’s common stock.  The Company initially reserved 230,000 shares of common stock for sale under the ESPP. The aggregate number of shares reserved for sale under the ESPP will increase automatically on January 1st of each of the first ten calendar years after the effective date by the number of shares equal to the lesser of 1% of the total outstanding shares of the Company’s common stock as of the immediately preceding December 31 (rounded to the nearest whole share) or a number of shares as may be determined by the Company’s board of directors. As a result, common stock reserved for issuance under the ESPP was increased by 457,521 shares on January 1, 2021.  The aggregate number of shares issued over the term of the Company’s ESPP, subject to stock-splits, recapitalizations or similar events, may not exceed 2,300,000 shares of the Company’s common stock.  

The fair value of the ESPP shares is estimated using the Black-Scholes option pricing model. For the three months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020, the fair value of ESPP shares was estimated using the following assumptions:

As of March 31, 2021, 421,277 shares had been purchased and 725,714 shares were available for future issuance under the ESPP.

Stock-Based Compensation Expense

The Company believes that the fair value of the stock options, RSUs and ESPP shares is more reliably measurable than the fair value of services received.

Total stock-based compensation expense recognized was as follows:

As of March 31, 2021, unrecognized stock-based compensation expense related to the unvested stock options and RSUs granted was $28.3 million and $33.9 million, respectively. The remaining unrecognized compensation cost is expected to be recognized over a weighted-average period of 2.9 years and 3.8 years, respectively. As of March 31, 2021, there is $0.3 million of unrecognized stock-based compensation expense related to the ESPP.

Non-Employee Stock-Based Compensation Expense

The fair value of options granted to non-employees was estimated using the Black-Scholes method. The stock-based compensation expense related to non-employees for the three months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020 was immaterial.

Call Option Plan

In February 2017, the Company adopted a Call Option Plan to grant selected employees, officers, directors and consultants (collectively, the “Participants”) options to purchase shares of the common stock of Vaxcyte. As of March 31, 2021, the Company has reserved 266,724 shares of Vaxcyte common stock for issuance under the program, under which call options covering 248,944 and 17,780 shares were granted in February 2017 and August 2019, respectively. The call options granted in February 2017 vested 25% on each of January 1, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, and expire one year from the vesting date. The call options granted in August 2019 vest 25% on each of January 1, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022, and expire one year from the vesting date.  

A summary of the status of the call options as of March 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020 is as follows:

The amounts recognized as compensation expense related to the Call Option Plan for the three months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020 were $20,000 and $138,000, respectively.

The amounts recognized as other expense related to the remeasurement of the vested call options for the three months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020 were $30,000 and $193,000, respectively.  As of March 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020, the liability attributable to the Call Option Plan was $79,000 and $109,000, respectively.