A company has $600,000 earnings after taxes in 2009 with 300,00 shares of stock outstanding.

I need to calculate earnings per share. In my text it uses dividends paid to common stockholder as part of the equation in a previous sample, but this assignment does not mention that. What am I missing?

Earnings per share = (Net Income - Dividends paid to Preferred Stockholders) / Average Outstanding Common Shares

So just take your earnings (net income) and divide it by your shares of common stock outstanding to get your answer.