Earnings per
Share is
net profits divided by the number of ordinary shares outstanding. A company which earned an
attributable profit of £10 million in the previous
financial year and with two million shares outstanding has an EPS of five pounds. Historical or trailing EPS are earnings per share for the last available financial year or quarter.
Forecast EPS are earnings as forecast by analysts. A consensus forecast is an average or
median figure derived from several individual forecasts. EPS is a key component of the Price/Earnings ratio.