PepsiCo profit grows, boosts outlook for year; shares rise

[October 09, 2014]  By Anjali Athavaley

NEW YORK (Reuters) - PepsiCo Inc raised its full-year earnings forecast and said snack sales helped its quarterly profit beat expectations, sending its shares up more than 1 percent in premarket trading.

The company raised its full-year growth forecast for earnings per share to 9 percent from 8 percent before taking into account currency impacts.

PepsiCo, which sells Frito-Lay snacks as well as beverage brands like Mountain Dew and Tropicana, said it earned a net income of $2 billion, or $1.32 a share, in the third quarter ended Sept. 6, up from $1.9 billion, or $1.23 a share, a year earlier.

Shares rose 1.35 percent to $95.21 before the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange.

Earnings per share, excluding charges related to acquisitions and other items, was $1.36. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting $1.29 a share.
 

“We delivered good third quarter results in the face of an ongoing challenged macroeconomic environment driven by increasing volatility in the emerging markets and continued sluggish consumer demand in developed markets,” said Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi.

Revenue, excluding the impact of currency translation and changes to PepsiCo's business, grew 3.1 percent. Overall revenue, which includes currency impacts, was $17.2 billion, up 2 percent from a year earlier.

Activist investor Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund Management urged the company recently to split its more successful snack division from its sluggish beverage business.

(Reporting by Anjali Athavaley; Editing by Franklin Paul, Chizu Nomiyama and Bernadette Baum)

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