This number is the company's earnings per share from the day-to-day operations of its business during the most recent complete fiscal year. It does not include discontinued operations, extraordinary items, and accounting changes.
Origin
We calculate EPS from Continuing Operations using data from each company’s income statement, as reported in annual reports and other public documents.
Benefit
EPS from Continuing Operations tends to be much more consistent and representative of a company’s true performance than reported EPS, which is subject to manipulation by accounting rules.
Example
For the Pros
Since EPS from Continuing Operations is not a standard line item, and companies vary in what they report on their income statements, we calculate this number on a case-by-case basis. It’s equal to earnings per share after any preferred dividends have been paid, but before any discontinued operations (such as a division that was spun off), extraordinary items (such as a one-time writeoff), and/or accounting changes. If a company has none of these things, its EPS from Continuing Operations will be the same as its reported EPS.