Earnings per Common Share

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2024

Earnings per Common Share

Presented below is a summary of the components used to calculate basic and diluted earnings per share. The Company applies the two-class method in computing both basic and diluted earnings per share, which requires the calculation of separate earnings per share amounts for common stock and unvested share-based awards. Unvested share-based awards that contain nonforfeitable rights to dividends are considered securities which participate in undistributed earnings with common stock.


	Year ended December 31,
	2024				2023			2022
	Common shareholders		Unvested restricted stock shareholders	Total	Common shareholders	Unvested restricted stock shareholders	Total	Common shareholders	Unvested restricted stock shareholders	Total
Numerator:
Net income attributable to Nelnet, Inc.	$	180,498	3,547	184,045	87,936	1,890	89,826	399,124	7,775	406,899
Denominator:
Weighted-average common shares outstanding - basic and diluted	35,936,337		706,196	36,642,533	36,629,437	787,184	37,416,621	36,884,548	718,485	37,603,033
Earnings per share - basic and diluted	$	5.02	5.02	5.02	2.40	2.40	2.40	10.82	10.82	10.82

Unvested restricted stock awards are the Company's only potential common shares and, accordingly, there were no awards that were antidilutive and not included in average shares outstanding for the diluted earnings per share calculation.

As of December 31, 2024, a cumulative amount of 169,087 shares have been deferred by non-employee directors under the Directors Stock Compensation Plan and will become issuable upon the termination of service by the respective non-employee director on the board of directors. These shares are included in the Company's weighted average shares outstanding calculation.