Before the open today, July 9, PepsiCo (PEP) announced second quarter earnings ahead of analyst expectations. But with the stock already up 21.69% for 2019 to date, the market shrugged. PepsiCo shares fell 0.62% at the close. PepsiCo has beaten analyst earnings projections in every quarter except for one stretching back to the second quarter of 2014.
PepsiCo is a member my 50 Stocks long-term  portfolio.The shares are up 143.56% since I added them to the portfolio on December 30, 2008.
For the second quarter PepsiCo reported earnings per share of $1.54 vs the analyst estimate of $1.51. At $16.45 billion revenue was inline with projections.
The company also confirmed its guidance for fiscal 2019 of earnings of $5.50 a share (against Wall Street’s consensus of $5.53 a share.) Organic revenue growth will be 4%, the company affirmed.
It’s that anemic revenue growth that has Wall Street concerned. The company’s new CEO Ramon Laguarta has made raising the revenue growth rate one of his key goals. In the quarter PepsiCo saw organic growth of 4.5% after reporting 5.2% organic growth in the first quarter of 2019. That 5.2% growth was the highest quarterly growth rate in more than three years. Due to the negative impact of a strong dollar, net revenue grew by just 2.2% in the quarter.
This quarter per usual, the company’s snack business led the way with revenue growth of 4.5%. The beverage unit saw revenue grow by 2.5%. Most of the growth was driven by price increases but the company’s sparkling water brand Bubly, launched in February 2018, saw strong growth. (PepsiCo acquired SodaStream in December 2018 as part of a sparkling water effort in the United States.) In the conference call CEO Laguata talked of Bubly becoming a $1 billion (revenue) brand.
In that conference call PepsiCo affirmed its formula of shooting for 4% to 6% annual revenue growth with a 20 to 30 basis point improvement in margins. The stock also pays a 2.9% dividend.
