Reporting earnings per share: Evidence from Portuguese annual reports

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Finance from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

The importance of the Earnings per Share (EPS) has been increasing in the last decade and its disclosures have become more common. Still, there are no studies about EPS financial reporting in Portugal. Being so, this project offers a first analysis of EPS financial reporting in Portugal, reviewing the regulation, providing evidence on the current practices and presenting recommendations to improve them. It concludes that not all of the Portuguese companies are in compliance with regulation (IAS 33) regarding EPS; they only voluntarily disclose what is more favorable and the crisis of 2010 had a great impact on EPS amounts.