How to Calculate Earnings per Share of Common Stock

Instructions

• 1

  To begin with, let’s suppose the net income after the preferred stock have been paid their share of dividends is 100 and the company has a total of 70 outstanding shares, then the earning per share will be 100/70 i.e. $1.428. This is the amount the company was able to generate for its common stock holdings.
• 2

  Firstly, we will need to find out the net income after taxes and interest have been paid off. To obtain the value, we will simply deduct the interest and the tax payable from our operating profit.
  
  This operating profit is deduced by subtracting all the operating costs/expenses from the gross profit of the company. All the information is available in the financial reports of the company, in the section of income statement or the profit and loss account.
• 3

  Having determined the income after tax and interest, we need to find out the amount of dividends paid on preferred shares. This is usually a fixed percentage and can be found by reviewing the company policy on shares, or in the notes of the income statement. It is important to see if there are any outstanding dividends for the previous years. If outstanding balances exist, they will be paid before we can move onto the dividends of the common stock. This is due to the cumulative nature of such products. Subtract these dividends paid from the net income calculated in step 2.
• 4

  We will now find the amount of paid up share capital of the company. These are the shares which the company has sold out to the general public. The information can be extracted from the notes of the balance sheet. Finally, divide this by the amount we calculated in step 3 in order to compute the earnings per share.