Coca-Cola (KO) Competitors

Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) and PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) are both large-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, community ranking, institutional ownership, profitability and media sentiment.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in KO or PEP?

Coca-Cola received 93 more outperform votes than PepsiCo when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 68.19% of users gave Coca-Cola an outperform vote while only 67.43% of users gave PepsiCo an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Coca-Cola	Outperform Votes 1211 68.19%	Underperform Votes 565 31.81%
PepsiCo	Outperform Votes 1118 67.43%	Underperform Votes 540 32.57%

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, KO or PEP?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Coca-Cola	$47.06B	6.52	$10.63B	$2.47	28.89
PepsiCo	$91.85B	2.16	$9.58B	$6.95	20.78

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of KO or PEP?

70.3% of Coca-Cola shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.1% of PepsiCo shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of Coca-Cola shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% 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.

Is KO or PEP more profitable?

Coca-Cola has a net margin of 22.59% compared to PepsiCo's net margin of 10.43%. PepsiCo's return on equity of 58.87% beat Coca-Cola's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Coca-Cola	22.59%	45.37%	12.24%
PepsiCo	10.43%	58.87%	11.28%

Which has more volatility and risk, KO or PEP?

Coca-Cola has a beta of 0.45, suggesting that its share price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, PepsiCo has a beta of 0.49, suggesting that its share price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor KO or PEP?

In the previous week, Coca-Cola had 13 more articles in the media than PepsiCo. MarketBeat recorded 70 mentions for Coca-Cola and 57 mentions for PepsiCo. PepsiCo's average media sentiment score of 1.17 beat Coca-Cola's score of 1.12 indicating that PepsiCo is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Coca-Cola	47 Very Positive mention(s)	9 Positive mention(s)	12 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
PepsiCo	45 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	3 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts prefer KO or PEP?

Coca-Cola presently has a consensus target price of $74.24, suggesting a potential upside of 4.05%. PepsiCo has a consensus target price of $169.88, suggesting a potential upside of 17.62%. Given PepsiCo's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe PepsiCo is more favorable than Coca-Cola.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Coca-Cola	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	17 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
PepsiCo	1 Sell rating(s)	12 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.26

Is KO or PEP a better dividend stock?

Coca-Cola pays an annual dividend of $2.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. PepsiCo pays an annual dividend of $5.42 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Coca-Cola pays out 82.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. PepsiCo pays out 78.0% 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 has increased its dividend for 64 consecutive years and PepsiCo has increased its dividend for 53 consecutive years. PepsiCo is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Coca-Cola beats PepsiCo on 13 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.