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 months ended March 31 follows (in thousands, except per share data):



	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2019		2018
Net income	$	172,107	$	174,937
Denominator for basic earnings per share	85,941		89,765
Dilutive securities	3,303		3,485
Denominator for diluted earnings per share	89,244		93,250
Basic earnings per share	$	2.00	$	1.95
Diluted earnings per share	$	1.93	$	1.88

Diluted earnings per share for the three months ended March 31, 2019 and 2018 excludes the effect of 0.1 million shares of common stock, for both periods, that may be issued upon the exercise of employee stock options because such effect would be anti-dilutive. Diluted earnings per share also excludes the effect of 0.1 million and 0.2 million shares of performance based restricted stock for which the performance criteria have not yet been achieved for the three month periods ended March 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively.