Coca-Cola (KO) Competitors

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

Which has more volatility and risk, KO or PEP?

Coca-Cola has a beta of 0.47, meaning that its stock price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, PepsiCo has a beta of 0.47, meaning that its stock price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is KO or PEP 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
Coca-Cola	22.59%	45.37%	12.24%
PepsiCo	10.43%	58.87%	11.28%

Is KO or PEP a better dividend stock?

Coca-Cola pays an annual dividend of $2.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. PepsiCo pays an annual dividend of $5.69 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. 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 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 has raised its dividend for 64 consecutive years and PepsiCo has raised its dividend for 54 consecutive years.

Does the media refer more to KO or PEP?

In the previous week, PepsiCo had 1 more articles in the media than Coca-Cola. MarketBeat recorded 68 mentions for PepsiCo and 67 mentions for Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola's average media sentiment score of 1.09 beat PepsiCo's score of 0.93 indicating that Coca-Cola is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Coca-Cola	41 Very Positive mention(s)	7 Positive mention(s)	12 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	2 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
PepsiCo	43 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	16 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	2 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has better valuation & earnings, KO or PEP?

Coca-Cola has higher earnings, but lower revenue 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
Coca-Cola	$46.89B	6.61	$10.63B	$2.50	28.80
PepsiCo	$91.52B	1.98	$9.58B	$6.80	19.41

Does the MarketBeat Community favor KO or PEP?

Coca-Cola received 96 more outperform votes than PepsiCo when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 68.28% of users gave Coca-Cola an outperform vote while only 67.15% of users gave PepsiCo an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Coca-Cola	Outperform Votes 1216 68.28%	Underperform Votes 565 31.72%
PepsiCo	Outperform Votes 1120 67.15%	Underperform Votes 548 32.85%

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

70.3% of Coca-Cola shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.1% of PepsiCo shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Coca-Cola shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of PepsiCo shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Do analysts recommend KO or PEP?

Coca-Cola presently has a consensus price target of $75.59, suggesting a potential upside of 4.97%. PepsiCo has a consensus price target of $160.69, suggesting a potential upside of 21.75%. Given PepsiCo's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe PepsiCo is more favorable than Coca-Cola.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Coca-Cola	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	17 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.05
PepsiCo	1 Sell rating(s)	14 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.16

Summary

Coca-Cola beats PepsiCo on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.