Earnings per share (EPS) are the earnings returned on the initial investment amount. Earning Per Share decides how much of a company's profit is alloted to the Companies outstanding stocks. So its like if you have earnings for a company they divide it by number of shares available in that comnpany to find out how much its earned per share. The Financial Accounting Standards Board requires companies' income statements to report EPS for each of the major categories of the income statement: continuing operations, discontinued operations, extraordinary items, and net income.