Note 11 - Common Stock and Earnings Per Share

9 Months Ended

May. 31, 2015

Earnings Per Share [Abstract]

Earnings Per Share [Text Block]

11. COMMON STOCK AND EARNINGS PER SHARE

On May 12, 2015, FactSet’s Board of Directors approved a regular quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, or $1.76 per share per annum. The cash dividend of $18.3 million was paid on June 16, 2015 to common stockholders of record at the close of business on May 29, 2015.

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

	Nine Months Ended May 31,
	2015			2014
Balance at September 1		41,793			43,324
Common stock issued for employee stock plans		951			562
Stock issued for acquisition of a business		20			0
Repurchase of common stock from employees*		(23	)		(41	)
Repurchase of common stock under the share repurchase program		(1,210	)		(1,829	)
Balance at May 31, 2015 and 2014, respectively		41,531			42,016

*For the nine months ended May 31, 2015 and 2014, the Company repurchased 23,192 and 41,093 shares, or $3.1 million and $4.4 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):

	Net Income (Numerator)		Weighted Average Common Share (Denominator)		Per Share Amount
For the three months ended May 31, 2015
Basic EPS
Income available to common stockholders	$	61,409		41,628	$	1.48
Diluted EPS
Dilutive effect of stock options and restricted stock				669
Income available to common stockholders plus assumed conversions	$	61,409		42,297	$	1.45
For the three months ended May 31, 2014
Basic EPS
Income available to common stockholders	$	51,532		42,166	$	1.22
Diluted EPS
Dilutive effect of stock options and restricted stock				449
Income available to common stockholders plus assumed conversions	$	51,532		42,615	$	1.21
For the nine months ended May 31, 2015
Basic EPS
Income available to common stockholders	$	178,867		41,648	$	4.29
Diluted EPS
Dilutive effect of stock options and restricted stock				669
Income available to common stockholders plus assumed conversions	$	178,867		42,317	$	4.23
For the nine months ended May 31, 2014
Basic EPS
Income available to common stockholders	$	156,136		42,615	$	3.66
Diluted EPS
Dilutive effect of stock options and restricted stock				555
Income available to common stockholders plus assumed conversions	$	156,136		43,170	$	3.62

Dilutive potential common shares consist of stock options and unvested restricted stock awards. No stock options were excluded from the calculation of diluted EPS for the three months ended May 31, 2015, while 49,571 were excluded for the three months ended May 31, 2014, because their inclusion would have been anti-dilutive.

For the three months ended May 31, 2015, the number of performance-based stock option grants excluded from the calculation of diluted earnings per share was 485,129. For the three months ended May 31, 2014 the number of performance-based stock option grants excluded from the calculation of diluted earnings per share was 1,389,674.

Performance-based stock options are omitted from the calculation of diluted earnings per share until the performance criteria are probable of being achieved. The criterion was not yet probable of being achieved as of May 31, 2015 and 2014 for these performance-based stock options.