Below are the earnings per share and the dividends per share of three companies.
Gamma Co.			Omega Co.			Delta Co.
EPS	DPS		EPS	DPS		EPS	DPS
$ 2.00	$ 1.00		$ 2.00	$ 1.00		$ 2.00	$ 1.00
2.10	1.05		2.10	1.00		2.10	0.75
2.40	1.20		2.40	1.00		2.40	1.00
2.80	1.40		2.80	1.00		2.80	1.50
3.00	1.50		3.00	1.20		3.00	1.00
a. What are the payout ratios for each company on an annual basis?
b. Can you explain some of the reasons for such differences in payout patterns?
c. Which company would you prefer to own as a shareholder? (Assume the bottom row is the most recent years data) Why? What other kinds of information would you want before you invested your money?