Earnings Per Share and Stockholders' Equity

Earnings Per Share

The following table sets forth the computation of earnings per common share and earnings per common share—assuming dilution:



	Year Ended December 31,
	2017		2016		2015
	(Dollars in thousands, except per share data)
Numerator:
Net income—numerator for earnings per common share	$	174,645	$	83,243	$	219,830

Denominator:
Weighted average common shares outstanding (1)	88,982,442		84,793,151		78,936,828
Effect of dilutive securities:
Equity forward sale agreements	—		—		67,575
2015 warrants	—		15,136		759,723
Stock options and deferred compensation agreements	945,612		456,236		1,040,922
Restricted stock and restricted stock units	382,954		340,646		155,520
Denominator for earnings per common share—assuming dilution	90,311,008		85,605,169		80,960,568

Earnings per common share	$	1.96	$	0.98	$	2.78
Earnings per common share - assuming dilution	$	1.93	$	0.97	$	2.72


(1)	Weighted average common shares outstanding include shares vested under the NMO Deferred Compensation Plan.

Options to purchase shares of our common stock that were outstanding during the respective periods indicated but were not included in the computation of diluted earnings per share because the options' exercise price was greater than the average market price of the common shares are as follows:



Period	Number of Shares	Range of Exercise Prices
		Minimum	Maximum
Year ended December 31, 2017	—	$—	$—
Year ended December 31, 2016	1,054,091	$24.79	$24.79
Year ended December 31, 2015	1,061,541	$24.79	$24.79

Stockholders' Equity

In August 2015, we completed an underwritten public offering of 8,600,000 shares of our common stock at a public offering price of $25.25 per share, of which 4,300,000 shares were subject to a forward sale agreement. The underwriters exercised in full their option to purchase 1,290,000 additional shares of common stock, which were subject to a separate forward sale agreement. We settled the forward sale agreements on August 1, 2016 and issued 5,590,000 shares of our common stock and received $134.7 million in net proceeds. We contributed the net proceeds from the settlement to the capital and surplus of American Equity Life.

The forward sale agreements had no initial fair value since they were entered into at the then market price of the common stock. The forward sale agreements were equity instruments and qualified for an exception from derivative and fair value accounting.