EPS (Earnings Per Share)
A company's net profit divided by its number of outstanding shares — the per-share building block behind the P/E ratio.
What it means
Earnings per share (EPS) is a company's net income divided by its total number of outstanding shares, over a given period — MarketWall, like most data providers, shows trailing EPS: the sum of the last four reported quarters. It converts a company-wide profit figure (which is only meaningful next to a company's overall size) into a single per-share number that's directly comparable to the share price. EPS is the "E" in P/E — dividing the current share price by trailing EPS is exactly how the trailing P/E ratio is calculated, which is why the two are shown together.
How MarketWall calculates it
MarketWall reports trailing twelve-month EPS from each stock's weekly Yahoo Finance fundamentals sync, the same trailing_eps figure that feeds the trailing P/E calculation. See the Data Sources & Methodology page for the full sync schedule.
How it's typically used
EPS is most useful compared across time for the same company — is it growing quarter over quarter and year over year — rather than compared across different companies, since the raw dollar figure depends heavily on how many shares a company has outstanding, which has nothing to do with how profitable or well-run it is. A company that just did a stock split will show a lower EPS afterward purely from having more shares, with no change at all to the underlying business; a company that's been buying back its own stock will often show a rising EPS even with flat total profit, simply because the same earnings are now divided across fewer shares. Neither of those changes the company's actual profitability — they're both reasons EPS on its own, without knowing what's behind it, can be a misleading number to compare between two unrelated companies. EPS growth is one of the most closely watched fundamentals around a company's quarterly earnings report: a company that grows EPS faster than its revenue is generally improving its margins or its share count (or both), while EPS growing slower than revenue is a signal to look for the reason — rising costs, dilution from new share issuance, or one-off charges are common explanations. Reported (GAAP) EPS and "adjusted" or "non-GAAP" EPS — which a company itself defines and strips certain costs out of — can differ meaningfully; MarketWall's trailing_eps figure is the standard reported number, not a company's own adjusted version.
Live example right now
FAQ
Is a higher EPS always better?
Generally yes for the same company over time, but comparing EPS between two different companies is misleading — it depends heavily on share count, which varies enormously and has nothing to do with profitability.
Why does EPS drop after a stock split?
A split increases the number of shares outstanding without changing total earnings, so the same profit is divided across more shares — EPS falls, but nothing about the business itself has changed.
What's the difference between EPS and P/E?
EPS is a company's earnings per share, in dollars. P/E is the current share price divided by EPS — EPS is the building block, P/E is the ratio built from it.
Does MarketWall show adjusted (non-GAAP) EPS?
No — trailing_eps is the standard reported EPS figure, not a company's own adjusted version, which can differ depending on what costs a company chooses to exclude.
See more signals in the interactive walkthrough, read the full Data Sources & Methodology page, or explore it live on a real chart — AAPL or BTC.