Food makers adapt to changing tastes

Article Excerpt

These three food makers continue to develop healthier products in response to falling demand for traditional packaged foods. However, these moves will take years to pay off. Moreover, all three are expensive in relation to their earnings. PEPSICO INC. $107 (New York symbol PEP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 1.4 billion; Market cap: $149.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.5; Dividend yield: 2.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.pepsico.com) is the world’s second-largest soft drink maker after Coca-Cola. It also makes other products, such as Frito-Lay snacks, Gatorade sports drinks, Tropicana fruit juices and Quaker Oats cereals. In the quarter ended June 11, 2016, sales fell 3.3%, to $15.4 billion from $15.9 billion a year earlier. If you exclude the businesses PepsiCo bought and sold, as well as currency rates, sales gained 3.3%. Both higher volumes (up 2%) and selling prices (up 2%) contributed to that gain. Without unusual items, earnings for the quarter were flat at $1.8 billion. However, earnings…