Earnings Per Share

The Company reports basic and diluted earnings per share. Basic earnings per share is computed by dividing net income attributable to shareholders of the Company by the weighted average number of common shares outstanding during the reported period. Diluted earnings per share reflect the potential dilution related to equity-based incentives using the treasury stock method. The calculation and reconciliation of basic and diluted earnings per share for the three and nine months ended September 30 (in thousands, except per share data) follows:



	Three Months Ended September 30,				Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2017		2016		2017		2016
Net income	$	202,823	$	129,618	$	457,503	$	356,961
Denominator for basic earnings per share	90,751		92,631		91,619		92,604
Dilutive securities	2,250		2,676		2,304		2,600
Denominator for diluted earnings per share	93,001		95,307		93,923		95,204
Basic earnings per share	$	2.23	$	1.40	$	4.99	$	3.85
Diluted earnings per share	$	2.18	$	1.36	$	4.87	$	3.75

Diluted earnings per share for the three month periods ended September 30, 2017 excludes the effect of 3.5 million shares of common stock that may be issued upon the exercise of employee stock options because such effect would be antidilutive. Diluted earnings per share also excludes the effect of 0.3 million shares of performance based restricted stock for which the performance criteria have not yet been achieved for both the three month periods ended September 30, 2017 and 2016, respectively.