Refer to the following mentioned data. (in millions) 2017 2016 2015 net sales $ 34,379 $ 30,705 $ 26,658 cost of products sold 14,027 13,696 13,986 gross margin $ 20,352 $ 17,009 $ 12,672 required: a. calculate the gross profit ratio for each of the past three years. (round your answers to 2 decimal places.) b. assume that campbell’s net sales for the first four months of 2018 totaled $12.99 billion. calculate an estimated cost of goods sold and gross profit for the four months, using the gross profit ratio for 2017.

Alpha industries is considering a project with an initial cost of $8 million. the project will produce cash inflows of $1.49 million per year for 8 years. the project has the same risk as the firm. the firm has a pretax cost of debt of 5.61 percent and a cost of equity of 11.27 percent. the debt–equity ratio is .60 and the tax rate is 35 percent. what is the net present value of the project?

howard, fine, & howard is an advertising agency. the firm uses an activity-based costing system to allocate overhead costs to its services. information about the firm's activity cost pool rates follows: stooge company was a client of howard, fine, & howard. recently, 7 administrative assistant hours, 3 new ad campaigns, and 8 meeting hours were incurred for the stooge company account. using the activity-based costing system, how much overhead cost would be allocated to the stooge company account?

R& m chatelaine is one of the largest tax-preparation firms in the united states. it wants to acquire the tax experts, a smaller rival. after the merger, chatelaine will be one of the two largest income-tax preparers in the u.s. market. what should chatelaine include in its acquisition plans? it should refocus its attention from the national to the international market. in addition to acquiring the tax experts, it should also determine the best way to drive independent "mom and pop" tax preparers out of business. chatelaine will need to explain to the federal trade commission how the acquisition will not result in an increase in prices for consumers. chatelaine should enter a price-based competition with its other major competitor to force it out of business and become a monopoly.