Benoit Company produces three products, A, B, and C. Data concerning the three products follow (per unit):Product A B CSelling price $85 $65 $75Variable expenses:Direct materials 25.50 19.50 5.25Other variable expenses 25.50 29.25 47.25Total variable expenses 51.00 48.75 52.50Contribution margin $34.00 $16.25 $22.50Contribution margin ratio 40 % 25 % 30 % Demand for the company’s products is very strong, with far more orders each month than the company can produce with the available raw materials. The same material is used in each product. The material costs $8 per pound with a maximum of 5,800 pounds available each month.

Compute contribution margin per pound of materials used.

Rate of return douglas keel, a financial analyst for orange industries, wishes to estimate the rate of return for two similar-risk investments, x and y. douglas's research indicates that the immediate past returns will serve as reasonable estimates of future returns. a year earlier, investment x had a market value of $27 comma 000; and investment y had a market value of $46 comma 000. during the year, investment x generated cash flow of $2 comma 025 and investment y generated cash flow of $ 6 comma 770. the current market values of investments x and y are $28 comma 582 and $46 comma 000, respectively. a. calculate the expected rate of return on investments x and y using the most recent year's data. b. assuming that the two investments are equally risky, which one should douglas recommend? why?