Topic: How To Invest

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, August 6, 2021

Article Excerpt

PEPSICO INC., $154.33, Nasdaq symbol PEP, is still a hold. The company is the world’s second-largest soft-drink maker after Coca-Cola. Its other brands include Frito-Lay snack foods, Gatorade sports drinks, Tropicana fruit juices and Quaker Oats cereals. PepsiCo has now agreed to sell a 61% controlling stake in its Tropicana juice business to private equity firm PAI Partners. The company will receive $3.3 billion and keep 39% of this new joint venture. To put that amount in context, it earned $2.39 billion, or $1.72 a share, in the second quarter of 2021. It expects to complete the sale later this year. PepsiCo bought Tropicana for $3.3 billion in 1998, and it now accounts for about 4% of its overall sales. In the past few years, juice sales have suffered as consumers shift to lower-calorie drinks like bottled waters and diet sodas. The company plans to invest the cash from the deal in its faster-growing products. However, its sales could slow if the new waves of…