PepsiCo beats on fourth-quarter earnings, but warns of cost pressure

PepsiCo on Thursday beat expectations for fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and revenue, but warned of cost pressures ahead from the rising price of transportation and packaging.

Shares rose about 1% in premarket trading, despite the company’s full-year outlook falling short of what analysts predicted.

Pepsi is feeling the impacts of inflation across its businesses. With Frito-Lay North America, the maker of Lay’s potato chips and Cheetos, it has had to pay more for cooking oil and packaging. With PepsiCo Beverages North America, transportation and commodities have become pricier.

Here’s what the company reported compared with what Wall Street was expecting for the fiscal fourth-quarter ended Dec. 25, based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv:

• Earnings per share: $1.53 adjusted vs. $1.52 expected
• Revenue: $25.25 billion vs. $24.24 billion expected

The food and beverage giant’s net income for the quarter came in at $1.32 billion, or 95 cents per share. That’s down from $1.85 billion, or $1.33 per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, Pepsi earned $1.53 per share, topping the $1.52 per share expected by analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.

Net sales increased 12% to $25.25 billion, higher than expectations of $24.24 billion.

The company’s organic revenue, which strips out the impact of acquisitions and divestitures, rose 11.9% in the quarter. In 2022, Pepsi said it expects organic revenue growth of 6%.

Pepsi said it expects to return about $7.7 billion to shareholders in the coming year, including dividends of $6.2 billion and share buybacks totaling $1.5 billion.

Shares of Pepsi are up 23% over the past 12 months. The company’s stock closed Wednesday at $171.94, bringing the company’s market value to $237.73 billion.

Read the company’s press release here.

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