Coca-Cola (KO) Competitors

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

Do institutionals and insiders believe in PEP or KO?

73.1% of PepsiCo shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.3% of Coca-Cola shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of PepsiCo shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Coca-Cola shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media refer more to PEP or KO?

In the previous week, Coca-Cola had 27 more articles in the media than PepsiCo. MarketBeat recorded 66 mentions for Coca-Cola and 39 mentions for PepsiCo. Coca-Cola's average media sentiment score of 1.23 beat PepsiCo's score of 1.03 indicating that Coca-Cola is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
PepsiCo	29 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	8 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Coca-Cola	47 Very Positive mention(s)	7 Positive mention(s)	8 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is PEP or KO a better dividend stock?

PepsiCo pays an annual dividend of $5.42 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Coca-Cola pays an annual dividend of $1.94 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. PepsiCo pays out 79.9% 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 pays out 80.2% 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 has raised its dividend for 53 consecutive years and Coca-Cola has raised its dividend for 63 consecutive years. PepsiCo is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in PEP or KO?

Coca-Cola received 83 more outperform votes than PepsiCo when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 67.86% of users gave Coca-Cola an outperform vote while only 67.85% of users gave PepsiCo an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
PepsiCo	Outperform Votes 1110 67.85%	Underperform Votes 526 32.15%
Coca-Cola	Outperform Votes 1193 67.86%	Underperform Votes 565 32.14%

Is PEP or KO more profitable?

Coca-Cola has a net margin of 22.45% compared to PepsiCo's net margin of 10.18%. PepsiCo's return on equity of 57.32% beat Coca-Cola's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
PepsiCo	10.18%	57.32%	11.02%
Coca-Cola	22.45%	44.01%	12.07%

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, PEP or KO?

Coca-Cola has lower revenue, but higher earnings 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
PepsiCo	$91.47B	2.44	$9.07B	$6.78	23.97
Coca-Cola	$45.75B	5.99	$10.71B	$2.42	26.27

Do analysts recommend PEP or KO?

PepsiCo currently has a consensus price target of $183.92, indicating a potential upside of 13.18%. Coca-Cola has a consensus price target of $72.14, indicating a potential upside of 13.47%. Given Coca-Cola's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Coca-Cola is more favorable than PepsiCo.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
PepsiCo	1 Sell rating(s)	10 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.25
Coca-Cola	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	12 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.88

Which has more risk & volatility, PEP or KO?

PepsiCo has a beta of 0.52, suggesting that its stock price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Coca-Cola has a beta of 0.61, suggesting that its stock price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Coca-Cola beats PepsiCo on 16 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.