The problem/question is..which is more useful in examining payout ratio in determining whether the company is viable in paying out the dividend?
The numbers at the the Merrill Lynch website are in agreement with those at Yahoo, at least for acas. Question..then.. is the definition of ttm eps as currently used in QP, the same as the definition of the eps used in CALCULATING THE DIVIDEND YIELD???? It would appear not...which is a cause of great confusion. What I am saying...in QP, it would appear that the definition of earnings yield is OUT OF SYNCH with the definition of ttm eps!!..and therefore a viable payout ratio cannot be computed. If you look at acas at Yahoo..the dividend yield given matches what is given by Yahoo. Yet the p/e given at QP is almost double that given at Yahoo because of the ttm eps definition difference given by Reuters. In QP, then, there is a different eps figure used to compute the dividend yield than to compute the p/e. I think they should both be the same...any comments? --- In [email protected], "gary" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi > > Here's the response I got from Reuters on the ACAS numbers: > > --- > > My Data team has reviewed your query and they have provided the following explanation: > > The difference in the EPS figures is due to the difference in the EPS metrics taken by Reuters and that taken by MSN. Reuters has taken Net Operating Income Per share as EPS, while MSN seems to have taken Net Earnings Per Share .The difference between the two is that Net Earnings Per Share has included a)Net Realised Gain (loss) on investment b)Net Unrealised appreciation (depreciation) of investments. Another reason is that MSN has taken into consideration the basic EPS figure whereas Reuters have taken into account the diluted EPS figure. > > Another thing to note here is that MSN number is the company's reported figures , while Reuters figure is Actuals comparable EPS figure based on broker consensus. > > --- > > > In this case, that's the difference between operating and reported earnings. Operating earning attempt to smooth out the eps number by only including numbers that are relevant to the core operations of the company. > > TTM EPS is the sum of the last 4 quarters earnings, in our case, that's operating earnings, for most others, it's reported earnings. > > There is no right or wrong here, there are different ways of looking at earnings, income and balance statements, you have to understand what the numbers represent. > > > Best regards, > > Gary Lyben > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: investor0329 > To: [email protected] > Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2007 4:40 AM > Subject: [quotes-plus] what is the TTM EPS for ticker ACAS? > > > TTM EPS is twelve month trailing earnings per share > > According to QP data it is $3.11 > > According to Yahoo, it is $6.55 > > Which is it? If QP is right, than ACAS is paying more in dividends > than it earned. If Yahoo is right, then ACAS is doing great. Chat > board at Yahoo says ACAS is doing great because of the low dividend > payout ratio which is dividends payed divided by TTM EPS. > > Am I reading the above numbers correctly? > > TTM EPS has a specific definition, does it not?..no room for different > definitions, right? >
