Earnings per Share (Issued 2/97)

Summary

This Statement establishes standards for computing and presenting earnings per share (EPS) and applies to entities with publicly held common stock or potential common stock. This Statement simplifies the standards for computing earnings per share previously found in APB Opinion No. 15, Earnings per Share, and makes them comparable to international EPS standards. It replaces the presentation of primary EPS with a presentation of basic EPS. It also requires dual presentation of basic and diluted EPS on the face of the income statement for all entities with complex capital structures and requires a reconciliation of the numerator and denominator of the basic EPS computation to the numerator and denominator of the diluted EPS computation.

Basic EPS excludes dilution and is computed by dividing income available to common stockholders by the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding for the period. Diluted EPS reflects the potential dilution that could occur if securities or other contracts to issue common stock were exercised or converted into common stock or resulted in the issuance of common stock that then shared in the earnings of the entity. Diluted EPS is computed similarly to fully diluted EPS pursuant to Opinion 15.

This Statement supersedes Opinion 15 and AICPA Accounting Interpretations 1-102 of Opinion 15. It also supersedes or amends other accounting pronouncements listed in Appendix D. The provisions in this Statement are substantially the same as those in International Accounting Standard 33, Earnings per Share, recently issued by the International Accounting Standards Committee.

This Statement is effective for financial statements issued for periods ending after December 15, 1997, including interim periods; earlier application is not permitted. This Statement requires restatement of all prior-period EPS data presented.