b

问题如下：

Income statements for two companies (A and B) and the common-size income statement for the industry are provided in the following table:

The best conclusion an analyst can make is that:

选项：

A.both companies' tax rates are higher than the industry average. B.Company B's interest rate is lower than the industry average. C.Company A earns a higher gross margin than both Company B and the industry.

解释：

Common-sized analysis of the income statements shows that Company A has a lower percentage cost of goods sold and thus a higher gross margin than the industry and Company B.

The tax rates for the companies are not higher than the industry. The interest rate is not a function of sales and cannot be analyzed on a common-size income statement. Tax rates are determined based on Taxes/Pretax earnings, not as a percentage of sales (as shown in common-size analysis).