Apple earned $112.0 billion in fiscal year 2025. Its annual report states earnings per share twice: $7.49 basic and $7.46 diluted.
Both figures divide the same profit. The 3 cent gap comes from the share count. Basic EPS counts the shares in issue. Diluted EPS also counts shares that employee awards could create. Basic EPS uses 14,948.5 million shares. Diluted EPS uses 15,004.7 million.
What is earnings per share? Earnings per share (EPS) is a company's net income divided by its weighted-average number of shares, the average count over the year. It states the profit that belongs to each share.
Apple's net income of $112,010 million, divided by 14,948.5 million basic shares, gives basic EPS of $7.49.
Diluted EPS adds the 56.2 million shares that employee awards could create. That makes 15,004.7 million shares and EPS of $7.46.
Apple's basic share count fell 5.1% from fiscal 2023 to fiscal 2025, while net income rose 15.5%. Basic EPS rose 21.6%.
Earnings per share is net income divided by the weighted-average number of shares. Net income is the profit left after costs, interest and tax. Our post on how to read an income statement shows where it sits.
EPS puts profit on a single share. That lets a reader follow one company through time, even when its share count changes. Apple's count fell in both year-on-year steps the filing covers.
How do basic and diluted EPS differ?
Basic EPS divides net income by the weighted-average number of shares outstanding. Weighted-average means the count is averaged across the year, because Apple issues and buys back shares throughout the year.
Diluted EPS adds shares that could be created later.
Apple grants employees restricted stock units (RSUs). An RSU is a promise of a share on a future date. Under its 2022 Employee Stock Plan, RSUs generally vest over four years. Each one settles in a single share of common stock.
Apple's filing calls the added shares the "effect of dilutive share-based awards". Its table has no other added line. More shares divide the same profit, so diluted EPS is the lower figure.
Where do Apple's figures come from?
Every figure comes from Apple's annual report, called a Form 10-K, for fiscal year 2025. Apple filed it with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on 31 October 2025. The fiscal year ran from 29 September 2024 to 27 September 2025.
Note 3 of the filing sets out the calculation. The table shows it for three fiscal years. Net income is in millions of dollars and shares are in thousands, as filed.
Net income was $96,995 million in fiscal 2023, $93,736 million in fiscal 2024 and $112,010 million in fiscal 2025. The weighted-average share counts fell in both steps. Net income fell 3.4% in fiscal 2024 while the basic share count fell 2.5%, so EPS fell too.
Fiscal 2025 | Fiscal 2024 | Fiscal 2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|
Net income ($ millions) | 112,010 | 93,736 | 96,995 |
Weighted-average basic shares (thousands) | 14,948,500 | 15,343,783 | 15,744,231 |
Effect of dilutive share-based awards (thousands) | 56,197 | 64,312 | 68,316 |
Weighted-average diluted shares (thousands) | 15,004,697 | 15,408,095 | 15,812,547 |
Basic EPS | $7.49 | $6.11 | $6.16 |
Diluted EPS | $7.46 | $6.08 | $6.13 |
As filed. Fiscal 2025 ended 27 September 2025. Source: Apple Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025, Note 3
How do you calculate basic and diluted EPS?
Basic EPS for fiscal 2025 is $112,010 million divided by 14,948,500 thousand shares. The result is $7.4931, which Apple states as $7.49.
Diluted EPS divides the same profit by 15,004,697 thousand shares. The result is just under $7.465, which Apple states as $7.46. We recomputed all six EPS figures in the table from the share counts. Each matches the filed figure after rounding.
How have Apple's basic and diluted EPS changed?
Chart 1 shows both measures for fiscal 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Source: Apple Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025
The chart shows basic EPS at $6.16, $6.11 and $7.49 in fiscal 2023, 2024 and 2025. Diluted EPS was $6.13, $6.08 and $7.46. The gap was 3 cents in each year as filed. Basic EPS rose 21.6% from fiscal 2023 to fiscal 2025, while diluted EPS rose 21.7%.
How much do dilutive awards add?
Dilutive awards added 56.2 million shares in fiscal 2025. That is 0.38% of the 14,948.5 million basic shares. Chart 2 shows the share for each year.
Source: YX Insights; Apple Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025
The chart shows the addition falling from 0.43% in fiscal 2023 to 0.42% in fiscal 2024 and 0.38% in fiscal 2025. The added shares were 68.3 million, 64.3 million and 56.2 million.
The filing says about 24 million RSUs were left out of fiscal 2023 diluted EPS. Counting them would have raised EPS. The filing calls such awards antidilutive. The calculation leaves them out.
A buyback is a company buying its own shares. Each share bought leaves fewer to divide the profit. Our post on share buybacks covers the mechanics.
Apple repurchased 471 million shares in fiscal 2023, 499 million in fiscal 2024 and 402 million in fiscal 2025. The fiscal 2025 purchases cost $89.3 billion. Apple's shares outstanding fell in fiscal 2025 from 15,116.8 million to 14,773.3 million, a drop of 343.5 million. Employee awards issued 58.1 million shares in the year, net of shares withheld for employee taxes.
Chart 3 compares fiscal 2023 with fiscal 2025.
Source: YX Insights; Apple Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025
The chart shows net income up 15.5% and the basic share count down 5.1%. That fall is net of the shares Apple issued to employees. Basic EPS rose 21.6%, which is more than net income because the divisor shrank.
At the fiscal 2023 count of 15,744.2 million shares, fiscal 2025 basic EPS would have been $7.11. That is our calculation, not an Apple figure. Apple's reported $7.49 is $0.38 higher.
Why does EPS use the weighted-average share count?
Profit builds across the year, while the share count changes through it. The weighted-average count reflects that change.
Apple ended fiscal 2025 with 14,773.3 million shares. Dividing net income by that count gives $7.58, which is our calculation. The weighted-average basic count of 14,948.5 million is 1.2% higher, because Apple's count fell during the year.
What does EPS leave out?
EPS is a dollar figure per share, so a company with fewer shares reports a larger number for the same profit. A level of EPS alone does not show how one company compares with another.
EPS also omits the price paid for a share. Our post on the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio shows how price is divided by EPS. Our post on return on equity measures profit against shareholders' equity.
Our post on how to read an income statement covers the lines above net income. Earnings per share divides that profit by the shares: Apple's fiscal 2025 profit of $112,010 million is $7.49 on 14,948.5 million basic shares and $7.46 on 15,004.7 million diluted shares.
Get the next explainer
The Academy is free to read, here on the web. The Long Trend, our free weekly letter, comes by email.
Learn more with YX Insights
This explainer is part of the YX Insights Academy. Each one takes a single idea and checks it against real data.
The same approach runs through everything else we publish:
Systematic Portfolio: ready-made portfolios for Macro & Megacaps and for Commodities. We publish the holdings and every change.
Multi-model Signals: a daily long-or-flat call on every name we cover. Each call shows how strongly our four models agree.
Research: company deep dives, macro commentary and essays on how we test.
Good places to start on the website:
Academy: more explainers like this one.
Start here: get our free weekly letter by email.
Macro & Megacaps Systematic Portfolio and Commodities: the two portfolios in detail.
Track record: live results since 3 August 2026, plus the ten-year backtest.
Upgrade: get the Systematic Portfolio, Multi-model Signals and research in full.
Common questions about earnings per share
Why is diluted EPS lower than basic EPS?
Diluted EPS is lower because it divides the same net income by more shares. The extra shares are ones that employee awards could create. Apple's fiscal 2025 diluted count of 15,004.7 million shares was 56.2 million above its basic count of 14,948.5 million, so diluted EPS was $7.46 against $7.49.
What is a good EPS?
No single EPS figure is good, because EPS depends on how many shares a company has. Two companies with the same profit report different EPS if their share counts differ. A like-for-like comparison follows one company across years. Apple's basic EPS rose from $6.16 in fiscal 2023 to $7.49 in fiscal 2025.
Where can I find a company's EPS?
EPS sits at the bottom of the income statement. A US company files its annual report as a Form 10-K with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. A note on earnings per share shows the share counts behind it. Apple's Note 3 in its fiscal 2025 filing sets out the net income and shares behind $7.49 and $7.46.
Yes, EPS is negative when a company reports a net loss, because a loss divided by the shares falls below zero. Apple reported net income in each of the three years in its fiscal 2025 filing, so its basic and diluted EPS were positive in each.
DISCLAIMER: This article is intended for educational purposes only. Any information or analysis in this note does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Nothing in this note is intended to be investment advice, nor should it be relied upon to make investment decisions. Any opinions, analyses, or probabilities expressed in this note are those of the author as of the note's date of publication and are subject to change without notice.
