Table 1 presents the results of our study for the 2004-2010 period based on the entire sample. The number of companies included in the analysis ranged from a low of 4,846 in the 2010 fiscal year to a high of 6,087 in the 2005 fiscal year. Overall results for this sample are consistent with our prediction that the debt-to-equity ratio decreases. The decreases in the ratio, on a year-by-year basis, are all statistically significant (at p-value .001). Our analyses show that the DTE ratios for the overall sample decline an average of 10.2 percent when the flow-through method is used, with the declines ranging from a low of 8.7 percent in 2008 to a high of 11.6 percent in 2010.