Earnings per Common Share (Tables)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

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				Nine Months Ended
	September 30,				September 30,
(In thousands, except per share data)	2020		2019		2020		2019
Numerator:
Net income	$	171,028	$	128,458	$	447,990	$	436,924
Preferred stock dividends	2,058		4,153		8,000		12,952
Net income attributable to SLM Corporation common stock	$	168,970	$	124,305	$	439,990	$	423,972
Denominator:
Weighted average shares used to compute basic EPS	375,094		424,149		386,587		429,295
Effect of dilutive securities:
Dilutive effect of stock options, restricted stock, restricted stock units, performance stock units and Employee Stock Purchase Plan (“ESPP”) (1)(2)	2,824		3,187		2,804		3,277
Weighted average shares used to compute diluted EPS	377,918		427,336		389,391		432,572
Basic earnings per common share attributable to SLM Corporation	$	0.45	$	0.29	$	1.14	$	0.99
Diluted earnings per common share attributable to SLM Corporation	$	0.45	$	0.29	$	1.13	$	0.98

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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, performance stock units and the outstanding commitment to issue shares under the ESPP, determined by the treasury stock method.

⁽²⁾      For the three months ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, securities covering approximately 2 million shares and no shares, respectively, and for the nine months ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, securities covering no shares were outstanding but not included in the computation of diluted earnings per share because they were anti-dilutive.