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Chapter 20: Q-23RQ (page 1120)
What is the margin of safety? What are the three ways it can be expressed?
Answer
Margin of safety is a cushion between profit and loss.
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How can CVP analysis be used by companies with multiple products?
What is the relevant range?
Before you begin this assignment, review the Tying It All Together feature in the chapter.
Best Buy Co., Inc. is a leading provider of technology products. Customers can shop at more than 1,700 stores or online. The company is also known for its Geek Squad for technology services. Suppose Best Buy is considering a particular HDTV for a major sales item for Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, known as one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Assume the HDTV has a regular sales price of \(900, a cost of \)500, and a Black Friday proposed discounted sales price of \(650. Best Buy’s 2015 Annual Report states that failure to manage costs could have a material adverse effect on its profitability and that certain elements in its cost structure are largely fixed in nature. Best Buy, like most companies, wishes to maintain price competitiveness while achieving acceptable levels of profitability. (Item 1A. Risk Factors.)
Requirements
1. Calculate the gross profit of the HDTV at the regular sales price and at the discounted sales price.
2. Assume that during the November/December holiday season last year, Best Buy sold an average of 150 of this particular HDTV per store. If the HDTVs are marked down to \)650, how many would each store have to sell this year to make the same total gross profit as last year?
3. Relative to Sales Revenue, what type of costs would Best Buy have that are fixed? What type of costs would be variable?
4. Because Best Buy stated that its cost structure is largely fixed in nature, what might be the impact on operating income if sales decreased? Does having a cost structure that is largely fixed in nature increase the financial risk to a company? Why or why not?
5. In the Tying It All Together feature in the chapter, we looked at the cost of advertising. Is advertising a fixed or variable cost? If the company has a small margin of safety, how would increasing advertising costs affect Best Buy’s operating income? What would be the effect of decreasing advertising costs?
Using terminology Match the following terms with the correct definitions:
1. Costs that do not change in total over wide ranges of volume.
2. Technique that estimates profit or loss results when conditions change.
3. The sales level at which operating income is zero.
4. Drop in sales a company can absorb without incurring an operating loss.
5. Combination of products that make up total sales.
6. Net sales revenue minus variable costs.
7. Describes how a cost changes as volume changes.
8. Costs that change in total in direct proportion to changes in volume.
9. The band of volume where total fixed costs and variable cost per unit remain constant.
a. Breakeven point
b. Contribution margin
c. Cost behavior
d. Margin of safety
e. Relevant range
f. Sales mix
g. Fixed costs
h. Variable costs
i. Sensitivity analysis
Mi Tierra Driving School charges \(680 per student to prepare and administer written and driving tests. Variable costs of \)408 per student include trainers’ wages, study materials, and gasoline. Annual fixed costs of \(63,920 include the training facility and fleet of cars.
Requirements
1. For each of the following independent situations, calculate the contribution margin per unit and the breakeven point in units by first referring to the original data provided:
a. Breakeven point with no change in information.
b. Decrease sales price to \)544 per student.
c. Decrease variable costs to \(340 per student.
d. Decrease fixed costs to \)53,040.
2. Compare the impact of changes in the sales price, variable costs, and fixed costs on the contribution margin per unit and the breakeven point in units.
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