Choose 10 firms that interest you and download their financial statements from any of these websites: finance.yahoo.com, finance.google.com, or money.msn.com.

a. For each firm, find the return on equity (ROE), the number of shares outstanding, the dividends per share, and the net income. Record them in a spreadsheet.

b. Calculate the total amount of dividends paid (dividends per share X number of shares outstanding), the dividend payout ratio (total dividends paid/net income), and the plowback ratio (1 -- dividend payout ratio).