Earnings per Common Share (Tables)

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2018

Earnings Per Share [Abstract]

Schedule of earnings per share, basic and diluted

A reconciliation of the numerators and denominators of the basic and diluted EPS calculations follows.

	Three Months Ended
	March 31,
(In thousands, except per share data)	2018		2017
Numerator:
Net income	$	126,254	$	94,943
Preferred stock dividends	3,397		5,575
Net income attributable to SLM Corporation common stock	$	122,857	$	89,368
Denominator:
Weighted average shares used to compute basic EPS	433,952		429,891
Effect of dilutive securities:
Dilutive effect of stock options, restricted stock, restricted stock units and Employee Stock Purchase Plan (“ESPP”) (1)(2)	5,025		8,844
Weighted average shares used to compute diluted EPS	438,977		438,735
Basic earnings per common share attributable to SLM Corporation	$	0.28	$	0.21
Diluted earnings per common share attributable to SLM Corporation	$	0.28	$	0.20

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⁽¹⁾ Includes the potential dilutive effect of additional common shares that are issuable upon exercise of outstanding stock options, restricted stock, restricted stock units, and the outstanding commitment to issue shares under the ESPP, determined by the treasury stock method.

⁽²⁾ For the three months ended March 31, 2018 and 2017, securities covering approximately 0 and 0 shares, respectively, were outstanding but not included in the computation of diluted earnings per share because they were anti-dilutive.