Another important fact related to EPS is that since it not only measures Earnings, but shares outstanding; companies tend to manipulate it buy having large share buybacks that reduce the amount of shares outstanding which inflate the EPS. For example, if a company has $10 per share on 100 shares outstanding and decide to buy back 50 shares (exaggerating for ease of calculation); the new EPS would be $20 per share. So, despite them having the same earnings on a dollar basis, they demonstrate a 100% percent increase buy reduce the shares outstanding by buying them back. This has been a trend for years in Wall Street so be aware!
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