Earnings Per Share (EPS) When a company buys back it stock, that removes from the market available shares to buy. a. So now, the companies EPS gets boasted b

Earnings Per Share (EPS) When a company buys back it stock, that removes from the market available shares to buy. a. So now, the companies EPS gets boasted because the total # of shares outstanding is a smaller denominator. b. Conversely, a lot of tech companies give stock options to employees. This (increases the # of shares) and dilutes the number of shares outstanding which then hurts your EPS. So it’s also common for a company to offer employee stock options and then perform a stock buyback, to neutralize the EPS swing.