PepsiCo (PEP) Competitors

CocaCola (NYSE:KO) and PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) are both large-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, dividends and media sentiment.

Is KO or PEP more profitable?

CocaCola has a net margin of 23.00% compared to PepsiCo's net margin of 10.24%. PepsiCo's return on equity of 58.28% beat CocaCola's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CocaCola	23.00%	45.49%	12.18%
PepsiCo	10.24%	58.28%	11.02%

Do analysts prefer KO or PEP?

CocaCola presently has a consensus price target of $76.27, suggesting a potential upside of 9.47%. PepsiCo has a consensus price target of $159.75, suggesting a potential upside of 24.77%. Given PepsiCo's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe PepsiCo is more favorable than CocaCola.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CocaCola	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	15 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.06
PepsiCo	1 Sell rating(s)	14 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.16

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of KO or PEP?

70.3% of CocaCola shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.1% of PepsiCo shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of CocaCola shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of PepsiCo shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more risk & volatility, KO or PEP?

CocaCola has a beta of 0.46, meaning that its stock price is 54% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, PepsiCo has a beta of 0.45, meaning that its stock price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, KO or PEP?

CocaCola has higher earnings, but lower revenue than PepsiCo. PepsiCo is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CocaCola, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CocaCola	$46.89B	6.40	$10.63B	$2.50	27.87
PepsiCo	$91.85B	1.91	$9.58B	$6.80	18.83

Does the media favor KO or PEP?

In the previous week, PepsiCo had 27 more articles in the media than CocaCola. MarketBeat recorded 82 mentions for PepsiCo and 55 mentions for CocaCola. PepsiCo's average media sentiment score of 1.36 beat CocaCola's score of 1.35 indicating that PepsiCo is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
CocaCola	46 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
PepsiCo	65 Very Positive mention(s)	7 Positive mention(s)	9 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is KO or PEP a better dividend stock?

CocaCola pays an annual dividend of $2.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. PepsiCo pays an annual dividend of $5.69 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.4%. CocaCola pays out 81.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. PepsiCo pays out 83.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. CocaCola has raised its dividend for 64 consecutive years and PepsiCo has raised its dividend for 54 consecutive years.

Summary

CocaCola beats PepsiCo on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.