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 The maker of Pepsi-Cola, Frito-Lay snacks and Tropicana juice said
that excluding the impact of currency translation and changes to
PepsiCo's business, quarterly revenue rose 4 percent.
Overall revenue in the first quarter ended March 22 was $12.62
billion, above the $12.43 billion Wall Street was expecting,
according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E.S.
A weaker spot for the company continued to be soda sales in North
America, where soft drink volume fell 1 percent as consumers
switched to healthier non-carbonated juices and health drinks. But
analysts were expecting a decline of 2.7 percent, according RBC
Capital Markets analyst Nik Modi.
According to a recent report by industry publication Beverage
Digest, PepsiCo lost 0.4 percentage points of its market share in
2013, while Coca Cola said an increase.
PepsiCo's soda problems have led activist investor Nelson
Peltz's Trian Fund Management, which owns nearly 1 percent of
PepsiCo's stock, to urge the company to split its booming snacks
division from its sluggish beverage business to create "two leaner
and more entrepreneurial companies."
Stifel Nicolaus analyst Mark Swartzberg said the results could give
PepsiCo some breathing room in its friction with Peltz.
"We think this aids management's defense of its (one-company)
decision," Swartzberg said in a research note.
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PepsiCo's sales of food in the Americas rose 5 percent, led by gains
in Latin America. Total snacks volume grew 2 percent.
The company said net income was $1.22 billion, or 79 cents per
share, in the first quarter, up from $1.08 billion, or 69 cents per
share a year earlier.
Excluding items such as restructuring charges, PepsiCo earned 83
cents per share, 8 cents more than analysts expected.
The company maintained its previous forecast for the full year and
still expects organic revenue to rise by a mid-single digit
percentage this year. It also continues to expect earnings per share
to climb 7 percent in 2014.
Shares were up 2.2 percent at $86.67 in premarket trading.
(Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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