PepsiCo (PEP)

Que nuevo soy, no le di importancia a la noticia, pero la puse por si alguna le veía el santo grial. Hoy aprendí otra palabra nueva (greenwashing). :sweat_smile:

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Postureo verde. Los anglosajones son los fakin crack definiendo conceptos.

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https://www.barrons.com/articles/pepsi-stock-soda-snacks-sales-6191ba11?mod=md_stockoverview_news

Pepsico Stockk Lost Its Fizz. Getting It Back Won’t Be Easy.Barrons.com

Jun 11, 2025

KO-0.59%

PEP-1.32%

By Evie Liu

Investor confidence in PepsiCo, the multinational conglomerate selling everything from sodas to granola bars, is wilting.

PepsiCo’s split focus on snacks and drinks had historically been its strength. But now, it is dragging the firm down from both ends. Its drinks continue to lose share to competitors like Dr Pepper, and its formerly fast-growing snack business is being hit by weak consumer spending amid inflation fears , shifting health priorities , and possibly a backlash against ultra-processed foods.

Long held by many investors as a steady consumer-staples play, PepsiCo shares have tumbled almost 30% from their recent high on May 17, 2024, to $132 on Tuesday. It badly lags behind soda rival Coca-Cola and the S&P 500, which are up 15% and 14%, respectively, over the same period.

PepsiCo stock is now trading at similar levels as six years ago, even though the firm’s 2024 earnings were nearly 50% more than in 2019. It is now valued at just 16 times forward earnings, the lowest since 2012 and much below Coca-Cola’s 24 times.

Investor sentiment is low for good reasons. In 2024, PepsiCo’s organic sales rose by 2% from a year ago, but much of the growth was driven by higher prices. When looking at sales volume, beverages in North America shrank 3%, while the Frito-Lay segment, which covers Doritos, Lay’s, and many other snacks, dropped 2.5%.

The food segment saw some improvement in the first quarter, but volume was still down year over year. “Unfortunately, the growth has yet to reaccelerate back to what we’ve seen historically,” said UBS analyst Peter Grom, “It’s taken longer than people would have expected.”

PepsiCo declined to comment for this article.

To be sure, PepsiCo’s overseas business is doing well, especially in emerging markets like Latin America. But weak foreign currencies last year offset the growth when translated back into dollars. In 2024, PepsiCo’s international sales grew a little over 2% from a year ago.

The dollar has weakened this year, but less so in key emerging markets. PepsiCo said it expects foreign exchange headwinds to continue shaving its net revenue and earnings growth by three percentage points in 2025.

Tariffs later this year could drive up freight and packaging costs and further squeeze margins, the firm said. In April, PepsiCo said it expects 2025’s earnings to be flat from a year ago in constant currency, down from the previous expectation of mid-single-digit growth.

For years, PepsiCo has been losing the beverage market to competitors. Last year, Dr Pepper overtook the classic Pepsi to become the second most popular soda in the U.S. For low-sugar drinks, Diet Coke and Coke Zero Sugar also left their Pepsi counterparts far behind.

What’s the problem? Distracted by its large snack portfolio, PepsiCo’s lower marketing spending on beverages than rivals led to fading brand awareness. The company has also been slower to introduce new products to snag buyers in a fast-changing market.

Unlike Coca-Cola, which mostly relies on independent bottlers, PepsiCo owns most of its bottling and distribution infrastructure. That has become yet another problem. Trucks are visiting stores less often and shelves aren’t always well stocked. That means even when shoppers wanted PepsiCo drinks, they often couldn’t find them in stores.

Still, until 2023 , the stock continued to climb up, thanks to PepsiCo’s crown jewel – its snack business – that persistently delivered strong growth and higher margins.

That’s no longer the case today. PepsiCo’s snack sales have been hit hard by weak consumer spending amid inflation and recession fears. Many price-sensitive shoppers are skipping the snack aisle or trading down to cheaper private-label products, hurting big brands like those from PepsiCo.

PepsiCo has raised prices too much over the past few years, said RBC Capital Markets analyst Nik Modi. “It’s not just about taking the price, but how they did it by shrinking portion sizes,” he told Barron’s, “That might have angered some consumers.”

The popularity of weight-loss drugs like Wegovy, which makes people eat less, has further weighed on demand. The fitness trend and aging population has pushed more consumers toward protein-rich food, but PepsiCo’s snack lineup is mostly high-fat, high-sodium carbohydrates such as Doritos corn chips and Lays potato chips.

While the firm made a big push to trot out new flavors, such as Valentina & Lime and Wavy Korean-Style Fried Chicken Lays potato chips, it has lost focus on the core value and appeal of its brand, said Modi: “If you innovate too much, you just create confusion in the eyes of consumers.”

PepsiCo is working to fix these problems. Management is slowing price hikes for snacks, pushing multipacks and smaller packages to lower per-unit costs and help with portion control, and leaning more into “better-for-you” products that have less sodium, saturated fat, sugar, and artificial ingredients.

In January, PepsiCo acquired Siete Foods, a Mexican-American brand known for grain-free tortillas made with avocado oil. The company also increased its stake to acquire full ownership of hummus brand Sabra, another snack category that is gaining traction.

For a beverage revival, the company has rebooted its “Pepsi Challenge” campaign from the 1970s and 1980s that praised Pepsi as the better soda to pair with food. Last month, it acquired fast-growing prebiotic soda brand Poppi, which contains dietary fibers that support gut health.

Management is also trying to better integrate PepsiCo’s food and beverage businesses both in the back office and the supply chain. PepsiCo currently sends separate trucks for food and beverages to the same stores, instead of transporting them together to reduce costs.

Grom thinks the stock market’s reaction might be overblown. “PepsiCo is still delivering growth that – while not where it has been historically – is decent,” he said, noting that the firm’s first-quarter results were better than some staples peers thanks to its strong international growth.

While a bounceback in share prices might take some time, he said, further downside appears limited as well. “I think the risk-reward for the stock is attractive now,” said Grom, “At this valuation, not much expectation is priced in.” He has a Buy rating for PepsiCo shares with a $169 price target.

The depressed stock price could be a good opportunity for income investors to jump in. PepsiCo shares now have an attractive dividend yield of 4.3%, and management plans to raise dividends by another 5% later this month.

Still, most analysts on Wall Street remain on the sidelines when it comes to PepsiCo. Among the analysts polled by FactSet, 70% have a Hold rating for the stock, with a median price target of $147. That suggests a 12% upside, far from a screaming buy.

PepsiCo management’s recent efforts, while laudable, likely won’t help the stock bounce back soon, said RBC’s Modi. “I think it’s a very near-term oriented approach,” he told Barron’s, “I’m sure it’ll help their margins, but I’m not sure it’s going to solve their top-line problems. There’s a lot of wood for them to chop.”

“Although defensively positioned in the past, PepsiCo’s turnaround in Frito-Lay and protracted market share decline in the U.S. are a drag into a potential recession this time,” wrote Bank of America’s Bryan Spillane in April. He downgraded the stock to Neutral from Buy and lowered his price target to $155 from $185.

PepsiCo is expected to report second-quarter earnings on July 17. Changing investor views on the beverage and snack giant may require clear progress, such as the volume of Frito-Lay sales growing in response to price cuts. Investors will be watching closely whether the fizz at the soda giant can return.

Write to Evie Liu at evie.liu@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron’s, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron’s is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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Resalto los siguientes párrafos

A diferencia de Coca-Cola, que depende principalmente de embotelladores independientes, PepsiCo posee la mayor parte de su infraestructura de embotellado y distribución. Esto se ha convertido en otro problema. Los camiones visitan las tiendas con menos frecuencia y los estantes no siempre están bien abastecidos. Esto significa que, incluso cuando los compradores querían bebidas de PepsiCo, a menudo no las encontraban en las tiendas.

Actualmente, PepsiCo envía camiones separados para alimentos y bebidas a las mismas tiendas, en lugar de transportarlos juntos para reducir costos.

Salu2

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Y este otro, me preguntó cómo no se les había ocurrido antes enviar el mismo camión para snacks y para bebidas

“Management is also trying to better integrate PepsiCo’s food and beverage businesses both in the back office and the supply chain. PepsiCo currently sends separate trucks for food and beverages to the same stores, instead of transporting them together to reduce costs.”

Supongo que las diferentes plantas de producción de snacks y las embotelladoras estarán en lugares diferentes, sea edificios diferentes o incluso ciudades diferentes. O no tendría mucho sentido y serían realmente unos inútiles.

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Pienso que Pepsi sirve a directamente a distribuidores de un tamaño (que luego reparten a otros distribuidores más pequeños o a punto de venta) o a grandes distribuidores (almacenes logísticos de supermercados). Nunca reparto de última milla a punto de venta.
Entended que así sale más interesante a Pepsi cargar un camión por peso con bebida y otro más ligero con volumen (snacks), que además pueden tener puntos de origen distintos.
Logísticamente así te ahorras un paso intermedio: traer un producto con un camión+descargarlo+gestionarlo+empaquetarlo +volverlo a cargar en otro camión con el otro producto. Es mejor enviar un camión completo directo a cliente.

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