Coca-Cola (KO) Competitors

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

Do analysts rate PEP or KO?

PepsiCo presently has a consensus price target of $160.69, suggesting a potential upside of 22.80%. Coca-Cola has a consensus price target of $76.00, suggesting a potential upside of 7.13%. Given PepsiCo's higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe PepsiCo is more favorable than Coca-Cola.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
PepsiCo	1 Sell rating(s)	14 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.16
Coca-Cola	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	16 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.05

Does the media favor PEP or KO?

In the previous week, Coca-Cola had 1 more articles in the media than PepsiCo. MarketBeat recorded 89 mentions for Coca-Cola and 88 mentions for PepsiCo. PepsiCo's average media sentiment score of 1.18 beat Coca-Cola's score of 1.15 indicating that PepsiCo is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
PepsiCo	70 Very Positive mention(s)	5 Positive mention(s)	10 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Coca-Cola	64 Very Positive mention(s)	7 Positive mention(s)	13 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, PEP or KO?

Coca-Cola has lower revenue, but higher earnings than PepsiCo. PepsiCo is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Coca-Cola, 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
PepsiCo	$91.52B	1.96	$9.58B	$6.80	19.24
Coca-Cola	$46.89B	6.51	$10.63B	$2.50	28.38

Is PEP or KO a better dividend stock?

PepsiCo pays an annual dividend of $5.69 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. Coca-Cola pays an annual dividend of $2.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. 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. Coca-Cola 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 has increased its dividend for 54 consecutive years and Coca-Cola has increased its dividend for 64 consecutive years.

Which has more risk & volatility, PEP or KO?

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

Is PEP or KO more profitable?

Coca-Cola has a net margin of 22.59% compared to PepsiCo's net margin of 10.43%. PepsiCo's return on equity of 58.87% beat Coca-Cola's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
PepsiCo	10.43%	58.87%	11.28%
Coca-Cola	22.59%	45.37%	12.24%

Do institutionals and insiders believe in PEP or KO?

73.1% of PepsiCo shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.3% of Coca-Cola shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of PepsiCo shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Coca-Cola shares are held by company 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.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor PEP or KO?

Coca-Cola received 97 more outperform votes than PepsiCo when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 68.29% of users gave Coca-Cola an outperform vote while only 67.15% of users gave PepsiCo an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
PepsiCo	Outperform Votes 1120 67.15%	Underperform Votes 548 32.85%
Coca-Cola	Outperform Votes 1217 68.29%	Underperform Votes 565 31.71%

Summary

Coca-Cola beats PepsiCo on 15 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.