Better to Round Up Than Down
If a company has one million shares outstanding and makes $1,014,900 of net income in a quarter, it has earnings per share of $1.0149, which rounds—in the normal procedure of rounding EPS to the nearest penny—to $1.01. If instead it makes $1,015,100 of net income, it has earnings per share of $1.0151, which rounds to $1.02. On the other hand, if it has net income of $1,013,900, it has earnings per share of $1.0139, which rounds to $1.01.