Earnings per share is the amount of earnings per each outstanding share of a company's stock.

In the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, the Financial Accounting Standards Board

Financial Accounting Standards Board

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is a private, not-for-profit organization whose primary purpose is to develop generally accepted accounting principles within the United States in the public's interest...

 (FASB) requires companies' income statements to report EPS for each of the major categories of the income statement

Income statement

Income statement is a company's financial statement that indicates how the revenue Income statement (also referred to as profit and loss statement (P&L), statement of financial performance, earnings statement, operating statement or statement of operations) is a company's financial statement that...

: continuing operations, discontinued operations, extraordinary items, and net income

Net income

Net income is the residual income of a firm after adding total revenue and gains and subtracting all expenses and losses for the reporting period. Net income can be distributed among holders of common stock as a dividend or held by the firm as an addition to retained earnings...

.

Calculating EPS

The EPS formula does not include preferred dividends for categories outside of continued operations and net income. Earnings per share for continuing operations and net income are more complicated in that any preferred dividends are removed from net income before calculating EPS. This is because preferred stock

Preferred stock

Preferred stock, also called preferred shares, preference shares, or simply preferreds, is a special equity security that has properties of both an equity and a debt instrument and is generally considered a hybrid instrument...

 rights have precedence over common stock

Common stock

Common stock is a form of corporate equity ownership, a type of security. It is called "common" to distinguish it from preferred stock. In the event of bankruptcy, common stock investors receive their funds after preferred stock holders, bondholders, creditors, etc...

. If preferred dividends total $100,000, then that is money not available to distribute to each share of common stock.

Earnings Per Share (Basic Formula)


Earnings Per Share (Net Income Formula)


Earnings Per Share (Continuing Operations Formula)


Only preferred dividends actually declared in the current year are subtracted. The exception is when preferred shares are cumulative, in which case annual dividends are deducted regardless of whether they have been declared or not. Dividends in arrears are not relevant when calculating EPS.

External links

• European banks’ earnings announcements, video