A measure of financial performance that looks at the cash flow generated by a company on a per share basis. This differs from basic earnings per share (EPS), which looks at the net income of the company on a per share basis. The higher a company's cash EPS, the better it is considered to have performed over the period. A company's cash EPS can be used to draw comparisons to other companies or to the company's own past results.

Watch: Earning Per Share

|||You may sometimes see cash EPS defined as either EPS plus amortization of goodwill and other intangible items, or net income plus depreciation divided by outstanding shares.

Whatever the definition, the point of cash EPS is that it's a stricter number than other variations on EPS because cash flow cannot be manipulated as easily as net income.