Income from Continuing Operations

Definition

Income Statement line item that does not account extraordinary items and discontinued operations. This metric is frequently used because it excludes items that are unlikely to happen the next reporting period.

For instance, if MSFT had five billion in Income, and 2 billion in an exceptional item charge, its income would be a reported 3 billion. Because the exceptional charge is unlikely to be repeated in the next quarter, some investors prefer to see what MSFT's income was BEFORE charges.