Topic: How To Invest

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, July 13, 2018

Article Excerpt

PEPSICO INC., $112.69, Nasdaq symbol PEP, 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. In the quarter ended June 16, 2018, PepsiCo’s sales rose 2.4%, to $16.09 billion from $15.71 billion a year earlier. That beat the consensus forecast of $16.04 billion. If you exclude the impact of currency exchange rates and the businesses that PepsiCo bought and sold over the last 12 months, the company’s overall sales improved 2.6%. PepsiCo continues to make progress with a multi-year plan to improve its efficiency. That includes closing warehouses and automating more of its bottling plants. It expects to complete the plan by the end of 2019. Thanks to those savings, as well as lower U.S. tax rates, earnings rose 6.9% in the quarter, to $2.30 billion from $2.16 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share gained 7.3%, to $1.61 from $1.50, on fewer shares outstanding. That also…