Note 11 - Common Stock and Earnings Per Share

3 Months Ended

Nov. 30, 2014

Earnings Per Share [Abstract]

Earnings Per Share [Text Block]

11. COMMON STOCK AND EARNINGS PER SHARE

On November 12, 2014, FactSet’s Board of Directors approved a regular quarterly dividend of $0.39 per share, or $1.56 per share per annum. The cash dividend of $16.2 million was paid on December 16, 2014 to common stockholders of record on November 28, 2014.

Shares of common stock outstanding were as follows (in thousands): 

	Three Months Ended November 30,
	2014			2013
Balance at September 1		41,793			43,324
Common stock issued for employee stock plans		183			215
Repurchase of common stock from employees*		(17	)		(21	)
Repurchase of common stock under the share repurchase program		(380	)		(530	)
Balance at November 30, 2014 and 2013, respectively		41,579			42,988

* For the three months ended November 30, 2014 and 2013, the Company repurchased 17,165 and 20,777 shares, or $2.2 million and $2.3 million, of common stock, respectively, in settlement of employee tax withholding obligations due upon the vesting of restricted stock.

A reconciliation of the weighted average shares outstanding used in the basic and diluted earnings per share computations is as follows (in thousands, except per share data):

			Weighted
	Net Income		Average Common Shares		Per Share
	(Numerator)		(Denominator)		Amount
For the three months ended November 30, 2014
Basic EPS
Income available to common stockholders	$	55,860		41,683	$	1.34
Diluted EPS
Dilutive effect of stock options and restricted stock				657
Income available to common stockholders plus assumed conversions	$	55,860		42,340	$	1.32
For the three months ended November 30, 2013
Basic EPS
Income available to common stockholders	$	52,178		43,134	$	1.21
Diluted EPS
Dilutive effect of stock options and restricted stock				639
Income available to common stockholders plus assumed conversions	$	52,178		43,773	$	1.19

Dilutive potential common shares consist of stock options and unvested restricted stock awards. The number of stock options excluded from the calculation of diluted earnings per share for the three months ended November 30, 2014 was 154,304 because their inclusion would have been anti-dilutive. No stock options were excluded from the calculation of diluted earnings per shares for the three months ended November 30, 2013 because no outstanding stock options were determined to be anti-dilutive. The number of restricted stock awards excluded from the calculation of diluted earnings per share for the three months ended November 30, 2014 was 3,408 because their inclusion would have been anti-dilutive, while 386,237 restricted stock awards were excluded from the calculation of diluted earnings per share for the three months ended November 30, 2013.

For the three months ended November 30, 2014 and 2013 the number of performance-based stock option grants excluded from the calculation of diluted earnings per share was 380,653 and 1,237,514, respectively. Performance-based stock options are omitted from the calculation of diluted earnings per share until the performance criteria have been met.