. COMMON STOCK AND EARNINGS PER SHARE

February 7, 2018,

FactSet’s Board of Directors approved a regular quarterly dividend of

$0.56

per share, or

$2.24

per share per annum. The cash dividend of

$21.8

million was paid on

March 20, 2018

to common stockholders of record at the close of business on

February 28, 2018.

Shares of common stock outstanding were as follows:

	Six Months ended February 28,
(i n thousands)	2018			2017
Balance at September 1		39,023			40,038
Common stock issued for employee stock plans		495			506
Repurchase of common stock from employees (1)		(6	)		(37	)
Repurchase of common stock under the share repurchase program		(585	)		(985	)
Repurchase of common stock under accelerated share repurchase agreement		—			(103	)
Balance at February 28, 2018 and 2017, respectively		38,927			39,419

(

)

For

the

six

months ended

February 28

201

and

201

, the Company repurchased

5,563

and

042

shares,

or $

1.0

million

and

$5.

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 (“EPS”) computations is as follows:

(in thousands, except per share data)	Net Income (Numerator)		Weighted Average Common Shares (Denominator)		Per Share Amount
For the three months ended February 28, 2018
Basic EPS
Income available to common stockholders	$	53,137		38,991	$	1.36
Diluted EPS
Dilutive effect of stock options and restricted stock				855
Income available to common stockholders plus assumed conversions	$	53,137		39,846	$	1.33
For the three months ended February 28, 2017
Basic EPS
Income available to common stockholders	$	66,710		39,489	$	1.69
Diluted EPS
Dilutive effect of stock options and restricted stock				211
Income available to common stockholders plus assumed conversions	$	66,710		39,700	$	1.68
For the six months ended February 28, 2018
Basic EPS
Income available to common stockholders	$	123,516		39,038	$	3.16
Diluted EPS
Dilutive effect of stock options and restricted stock				725
Income available to common stockholders plus assumed conversions	$	123,516		39,763	$	3.11
For the six months ended February 28, 2017
Basic EPS
Income available to common stockholders	$	133,293		39,659	$	3.36
Diluted EPS
Dilutive effect of stock options and restricted stock				241
Income available to common stockholders plus assumed conversions	$	133,293		39,900	$	3.34

Dilutive potential common shares consist of stock options and unvested restricted stock awards. The were

stock options excluded from the calculation of diluted EPS for the

three

months ended

February 28, 2018

options would have been anti-dilutive. The number of stock options excluded from the calculation of diluted EPS for the

three

months ended

February 28, 2017

was

487,023

because their inclusion would have been anti-dilutive.

For the

three

months ended

February 28, 2018

and

2017,

the number of performance-based stock options excluded from the calculation of diluted EPS was

309,800

and

754,561,

respectively. Performance-based stock options are omitted from the calculation of diluted EPS until the performance criteria are probable of being achieved.