Interim Earnings Per Share

There was a transition. A new CEO. A new product. New distribution partners. New everything, as The Old Way horse-shoeing company migrated around 1928 into the tire-selling business. They had made $1.20 a share for the trailing 5 years, then lost money for 2 when they realized that horses would become more, uh...hot dog than transport vehicle.

So they shifted businesses, and knew that it'd be 3-4 years before they gained traction. With radials. So those interim earnings per share were losses of a dollar the first two years, then a break-even year, then in year 4 they earned a dime a share, on their way back to real and sustained profitability, providing tires for these new-fangled things called cars.