Earnings Per Share Information

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2017

NOTE 14. EARNINGS PER SHARE INFORMATION

	Three months ended March 31
	2017				2016
(In millions; per-share amounts in dollars)	Diluted		Basic		Diluted		Basic

Amounts attributable to the Company:
Consolidated
Earnings from continuing operations for
per-share calculation(a)(b)	$	886	$	886	$	533	$	533
Preferred stock dividends		(34)		(34)		(289)		(289)
Earnings from continuing operations attributable to
common shareowners for per-share calculation(a)(b)	$	852	$	852	$	244	$	244
Earnings (loss) from discontinued operations
for per-share calculation(a)(b)		(243)		(243)		(311)		(311)
Net earnings attributable to GE common
shareowners for per-share calculation(a)(b)	$	613	$	613	$	(64)	$	(64)

Average equivalent shares
Shares of GE common stock outstanding		8,714		8,714		9,288		9,288
Employee compensation-related shares (including
stock options)		98		-		95		-
Total average equivalent shares		8,811		8,714		9,383		9,288

Per-share amounts
Earnings from continuing operations	$	0.10	$	0.10	$	0.03	$	0.03
Earnings (loss) from discontinued operations		(0.03)		(0.03)		(0.03)		(0.03)
Net earnings		0.07		0.07		(0.01)		(0.01)

Our unvested restricted stock unit awards that contain non-forfeitable rights to dividends or dividend equivalents are considered participating securities. For the periods ended March 31, 2017 and 2016, pursuant to the two-class method, as a result of the excess of dividends in respect to current period earnings, losses were not allocated to the participating securities.
Included an insignificant amount of dividend equivalents in each of the periods presented.

For the three months ended March 31, 2017, approximately 15 million of outstanding stock awards were not included in the computation of diluted earnings (loss) per share because their effect was antidilutive. As a result of the loss from continuing operations for the three months ended March 31, 2016, all of the outstanding stock awards, approximately 33 million, were not included in the computation of diluted earnings (loss) per share because their effect was antidilutive.

Earnings-per-share amounts are computed independently for earnings (loss) from continuing operations, earnings (loss) from discontinued operations and net earnings (loss). As a result, the sum of per-share amounts from continuing operations and discontinued operations may not equal the total per-share amounts for net earnings (loss).