You are an analyst for a U$.$S$.$ pension fund. Your supervisor has asked you to value the stocks of General Electric $($GE$)$ and General Motors $($GM$).$ The supervisor wants you to evaluate the appropriateness of the dividend discount model $($DDM$)$ for valuing GE and GM and she has compiled the following data for the two companies for $2000$ through $2007.$

$\backslash$table$[[$GE$,$GM$],[$Year$,$EPS $($$$),$DPS $($$$),$Payout Ratio,EPS $($$$),$DPS $($$$),$Payout Ratio,,$],[2007,2\mathrm{.}17,1\mathrm{.}15,0\mathrm{.}53,-68\mathrm{.}45,1\mathrm{.}00,-0\mathrm{.}01,,],[2006,1\mathrm{.}99,1\mathrm{.}03,0\mathrm{.}52,-3\mathrm{.}50,1\mathrm{.}00,-0\mathrm{.}29,,],[2005,1\mathrm{.}76,0\mathrm{.}91,0\mathrm{.}52,-18\mathrm{.}50,2\mathrm{.}00,-0\mathrm{.}11,,],[2004,1\mathrm{.}61,0\mathrm{.}82,0\mathrm{.}51,4\mathrm{.}94,2\mathrm{.}00,0\mathrm{.}40,,],[2003,1\mathrm{.}55,0\mathrm{.}77,0\mathrm{.}50,5\mathrm{.}03,2\mathrm{.}00,0\mathrm{.}40,,],[2002,1\mathrm{.}51,0\mathrm{.}73,0\mathrm{.}48,3\mathrm{.}35,2\mathrm{.}00,0\mathrm{.}60,,],[2001,1\mathrm{.}41,0\mathrm{.}66,0\mathrm{.}47,1\mathrm{.}77,2\mathrm{.}00,1\mathrm{.}13,,],[2000,1\mathrm{.}27,0\mathrm{.}57,0\mathrm{.}45,6\mathrm{.}68,2\mathrm{.}00,0\mathrm{.}30,,]]$

Briefly explain whether the DDM is appropriate for valuing each stock.