Professor,

As part of the assignment you ask us to evaluate the time series changes of 
Home
Depot's profitability relative to previous years (last question in section 
b.).
However, given that we have only 2 fiscal years of balance sheet data we can
only calculate one year of ratios (ROA, ROE, etc).  How are we to answer the
question given our dilemma?

**********************************************
Mark D. Guinney, CFA
Consultant
Watson Wyatt Investment Consulting
345 California Street, Ste. 1400
San Francisco, CA  94104
(415) 733-4487 ph.
(415) 733-4190 fax