Net Income Available to Common Stockholders Per Share of the Company

The following table reconciles the numerator and denominator in computing the Company’s basic and diluted per-share computations for net income available to common stockholders for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014:



	Year Ended December 31,
	2016			2015			2014
	(in thousands, except unit and per unit amounts)
Numerator:
Income from continuing operations	$	303,798		$	238,604		$	59,313
Income from continuing operations attributable to noncontrolling interests	(10,010		)	(4,523		)	(966		)
Preferred dividends and distributions	(13,250		)	(13,250		)	(13,250		)
Allocation to participating securities ⁽¹⁾	(3,839		)	(1,634		)	(1,699		)
Numerator for basic and diluted income from continuing operations available to common stockholders	276,699			219,197			43,398
Income from discontinued operations ⁽²⁾	—			—			124,495
Income from discontinued operations attributable to noncontrolling common units of the Operating Partnership ⁽²⁾	—			—			(2,623		)
Numerator for basic and diluted net income available to common stockholders	$	276,699		$	219,197		$	165,270
Denominator:
Basic weighted average vested shares outstanding	92,342,483			89,854,096			83,090,235
Effect of dilutive securities – contingently issuable shares and stock options	680,551			541,679			1,877,485
Diluted weighted average vested shares and common stock equivalents outstanding	93,023,034			90,395,775			84,967,720
Basic earnings per share:
Income from continuing operations available to common stockholders per share	$	3.00		$	2.44		$	0.52
Income from discontinued operations per share of common stock ⁽²⁾	—			—			1.47
Net income available to common stockholders per share	$	3.00		$	2.44		$	1.99
Diluted earnings per share:
Income from continuing operations available to common stockholders per share	$	2.97		$	2.42		$	0.51
Income from discontinued operations per share of common stock ⁽²⁾	—			—			1.44
Net income available to common stockholders per share	$	2.97		$	2.42		$	1.95

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(1)	Participating securities include nonvested shares, certain time-based RSUs and vested market measure-based RSUs.


(2)	The Company adopted ASU 2014-08 effective January 1, 2015 (see Note 2 “Basis of Presentation and Significant Accounting Policies” for additional information). As a result, properties classified as held for sale and/or disposed of subsequent to January 1, 2015 that do not represent a strategic shift are no longer presented as discontinued operations.

Share-based payment awards that contain non-forfeitable rights to dividends or dividend equivalents (whether paid or unpaid) are considered participating securities. The impact of potentially dilutive shares of common stock, including stock options, RSUs and other securities are considered in our diluted earnings per share calculation for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015, and 2014. Additionally, for the year ended December 31, 2014, contingently issuable shares included the impact of the 4.25% Exchangeable Notes prior to their maturity and settlement in November 2014. Certain market measure-based RSUs are not included in dilutive securities as of December 31, 2016, 2015, and 2014 as not all performance metrics had been met by the end of the applicable reporting periods.

See Note 15 “Share-Based Compensation” for additional information regarding the stock options and other share-based compensation.