Earnings Per Share

12 Months Ended

Mar. 03, 2012

Earnings Per Share

9. Earnings Per Share

Basic earnings from continuing operations per share is calculated by dividing income from continuing operations associated with common shareholders by the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding during the period. Diluted earnings per share assumes the issuance of additional shares of common stock by the Company upon exercise of all outstanding stock options and contingently issuable securities if the effect is dilutive, in accordance with the treasury stock method or two class method (whichever is more dilutive) discussed in ASC 260-10, “Earnings Per Share”.

ASC 260-10 requires the inclusion of restricted stock as participating securities, since they have the right to share in dividends, if declared, equally with common shareholders. During periods of net income, participating securities are allocated a proportional share of net income determined by dividing total weighted average participating securities by the sum of total weighted average common shares and participating securities (“the two-class method”). During periods of net loss, no effect is given to participating securities since they do not share in the losses of the Company. Participating securities have the effect of diluting both basic and diluted earnings per share during periods of net income.

The following is a reconciliation of the numerators and denominators used in computing earnings per share (in thousands, except per share amounts):

	2012		2011		2010
Income from continuing operations	$	84,804	$	68,864	$	50,833
Income from continuing operations attributable to participating securities		691		981		739
Income from continuing operations available to common shareholders	$	84,113	$	67,883	$	50,094
Basic earnings from continuing operations per share:
Weighted-average number of common shares outstanding		52,020		52,979		54,221
Basic earnings from continuing operations per share	$	1.62	$	1.28	$	0.92
Diluted earnings from continuing operations per share:
Weighted-average number of common shares outstanding		52,020		52,979		54,221
Dilutive effect of potential common shares(a)		798		796		376
Diluted weighted-average number of common shares outstanding		52,818		53,775		54,597
Diluted earnings from continuing operations per share	$	1.59	$	1.26	$	0.92

(a) The computation of diluted earnings from continuing operations per share excludes options to purchase approximately 0.4 million, 1.2 million and 1.8 million shares of common stock in 2012, 2011 and 2010, respectively, because the impact of such options would have been antidilutive.