Refer to the financial statements of The Home Depot in Appendix A and Lowe's in Appendix B at the end of this book, or download the annual reports from the Cases section of the text's Web site at www.mhhe.com/phillips4e.
Required:
1. Did Lowe's have more or fewer authorized shares of common stock than The Home Depot at the beginning of February 2011?
2. From the Retained Earnings column in the statement of stockholders' equity, what total amount of cash dividends did Lowe's declare during the year ended January 28, 2011? Compared to The Home Depot, is Lowe's policy on dividends better, worse, or just different?
3. How have Lowe's net earnings changed over the past three years? How has the company's basic earnings per share changed over the past three years? According to financial statement note 11, were the changes in EPS caused only by changes in Lowe's net earnings?