Coca-Cola Consolidated (NASDAQ:COKE) versus PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) Head-To-Head Contrast

Coca-Cola Consolidated (NASDAQ:COKE) and PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) are both large-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends, risk, profitability, earnings and institutional ownership.

Risk and Volatility

Coca-Cola Consolidated has a beta of 0.61, indicating that its stock price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, PepsiCo has a beta of 0.38, indicating that its stock price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Coca-Cola Consolidated and PepsiCo’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Coca-Cola Consolidated	7.72%	77.38%	12.60%
PepsiCo	9.15%	56.61%	10.56%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Coca-Cola Consolidated and PepsiCo, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Coca-Cola Consolidated	0	0	1	0	3.00
PepsiCo	1	11	8	0	2.35

PepsiCo has a consensus target price of $170.26, suggesting a potential upside of 8.94%. Given PepsiCo’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe PepsiCo is more favorable than Coca-Cola Consolidated.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Coca-Cola Consolidated and PepsiCo”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Coca-Cola Consolidated	$7.49 billion	1.58	$570.58 million	$7.31	24.30
PepsiCo	$93.93 billion	2.27	$8.24 billion	$6.37	24.54

PepsiCo has higher revenue and earnings than Coca-Cola Consolidated. Coca-Cola Consolidated is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than PepsiCo, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

48.2% of Coca-Cola Consolidated shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.1% of PepsiCo shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.0% of Coca-Cola Consolidated shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of PepsiCo shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Coca-Cola Consolidated pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. PepsiCo pays an annual dividend of $5.69 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Coca-Cola Consolidated pays out 13.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. PepsiCo pays out 89.3% 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 Consolidated has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years and PepsiCo has raised its dividend for 54 consecutive years. PepsiCo is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

PepsiCo beats Coca-Cola Consolidated on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Coca-Cola Consolidated

Coca-Cola Consolidated, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, markets, and distributes nonalcoholic beverages primarily products of The Coca-Cola Company in the United States. The company offers sparkling beverages; and still beverages, including energy products, as well as noncarbonated beverages comprising bottled water, ready to drink coffee and tea, enhanced water, juices, and sports drinks. It also sells its products to other Coca-Cola bottlers; and post-mix products that are dispensed through equipment, which mixes the fountain syrups with carbonated or still water enabling fountain retailers to sell finished products to consumers in cups or glasses. In addition, the company manufactures and distributes various other beverage brands that include Dr Pepper and Monster Energy. It sells and distributes its products directly to grocery stores, mass merchandise stores, club stores, convenience stores, and drug stores; and restaurants, schools, amusement parks, and recreational facilities, as well as through vending machine outlets. The company was formerly known as Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated and changed its name to Coca-Cola Consolidated, Inc. in January 2019. Coca-Cola Consolidated, Inc. was incorporated in 1980 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.

About PepsiCo

PepsiCo, Inc. engages in the manufacture, marketing, distribution, and sale of various beverages and convenient foods worldwide. The company operates through seven segments: Frito-Lay North America; Quaker Foods North America; PepsiCo Beverages North America; Latin America; Europe; Africa, Middle East and South Asia; and Asia Pacific, Australia and New Zealand and China Region. It provides dips, cheese-flavored snacks, and spreads, as well as corn, potato, and tortilla chips; cereals, rice, pasta, mixes and syrups, granola bars, grits, oatmeal, rice cakes, and side dishes; beverage concentrates, fountain syrups, and finished goods; ready-to-drink tea, coffee, and juices; dairy products; and sparkling water makers and related products, as well as distributes alcoholic beverages under Hard MTN Dew brand. The company offers its products primarily under the Lay’s, Doritos, Fritos, Tostitos, BaiCaoWei, Cheetos, Cap’n Crunch, Life, Pearl Milling Company, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, Quaker, Rice-A-Roni, Aquafina, Bubly, Emperador, Diet Mountain Dew, Diet Pepsi, Gatorade Zero, Crush, Propel, Dr Pepper, Schweppes, Marias Gamesa, Ruffles, Sabritas, Saladitas, Tostitos, 7UP, Diet 7UP, H2oh!, Manzanita Sol, Mirinda, Pepsi Black, Pepsi Max, San Carlos, Toddy, Walkers, Chipsy, Kurkure, Sasko, Spekko, White Star, Smith’s, Sting, SodaStream, Lubimyj Sad, Agusha, Chudo, Domik v Derevne, Lipton, and other brands. It serves wholesale and other distributors, foodservice customers, grocery stores, drug stores, convenience stores, discount/dollar stores, mass merchandisers, membership stores, hard discounters, e-commerce retailers and authorized independent bottlers, and others through a network of direct-store-delivery, customer warehouse, and distributor networks, as well as directly to consumers through e-commerce platforms and retailers. The company was founded in 1898 and is based in Purchase, New York.