Continue reading the main story. 1  AMID the squawks and pings of our digital devices, the old-fashioned virtues of reading novels can seem faded, even futile. 2  Brain scans are revealing what happens in our heads when we read a detailed description, an evocative metaphor or an emotional exchange between characters.
One metric that investors use to evaluate companies and industries is profit margin, which speaks of the company's ability to manage its cost and effectively price its products. In May 2015, the profit margin for companies in the food and beverage sector ranged from -24.1% to 24%. The average profit margin was 5.2%.Profit margin is calculated as net income divided by the company's total revenues.n May 2015, the profit margin for companies in the food and beverage sector ranged from -24.1% to 24%. The average profit margin was 5.2%.
You divide the result by the total sales figure and multiply by 100 to get the percent gross profit margin. For example, if you had $100,000 in gross sales and $90,000 in overall costs, your gross profit margin would be 10 percent. An analysis of the gross profit margin starts with the costs of production. A large part of the cost of a typical product is the material that goes into making it. If you can reduce this cost, your costs of production go down and your gross profit margin goes up.