Research the four firms using either Key Statistics or Financials from the overview/main pages for the stocks on Yahoo! Finance Web site. Compute and compare the following financial ratios for the four firms for their most recent fiscal years:< >

Note: In Key Statistics under the heading "Valuation Measures" there are numbers for both Trailing P/E ratios and Forward P/E ratios. Most commonly, in calculating both ratios the corporation's current stock price is divided by its earnings per share (EPS). The difference is that Trailing P/E ratios use reported EPS for the past year, specifically the past/trailing 12 months (ttm), and Forward P/E ratios use estimated EPS for the upcoming 4 quarters. Also, in interpreting some of the other statistics provided, please note that "yoy" is an acronym for "year-on-year" and "mrq" is an acronym for "most recent quarter."

• Current Ratio (X)
• Sales/Total Assets (percent) or Total asset turnover
• Times interest earned (X)
• Total Debt/Equity (percent)
• Net Income / Net Sales (percent) or Return on Sales (ROS)
• Net Income / Total Assets (percent) or Return on Assets (ROA)
• Net Income / Common Equity (percent) or Return on Equity (ROE)
• P/E or P/E Ratio (X)

Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM)

Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK)

Target (TGT)

Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ)