Head-To-Head Review: Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (NASDAQ:CCEP) vs. PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP)

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (NASDAQ:CCEP) and PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) are both large-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, risk and dividends.

Dividends

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners pays an annual dividend of $0.79 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. PepsiCo pays an annual dividend of $5.69 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Coca-Cola Europacific Partners pays out 16.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. PepsiCo pays out 103.6% 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 has increased its dividend for 54 consecutive years. PepsiCo is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Risk and Volatility

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners has a beta of 0.76, indicating that its share price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, PepsiCo has a beta of 0.46, indicating that its share price is 54% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Coca-Cola Europacific Partners and PepsiCo, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners	1	3	5	0	2.44
PepsiCo	2	14	4	0	2.10

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners currently has a consensus price target of $92.40, indicating a potential upside of 5.28%. PepsiCo has a consensus price target of $157.87, indicating a potential upside of 11.19%. Given PepsiCo’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe PepsiCo is more favorable than Coca-Cola Europacific Partners.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Coca-Cola Europacific Partners and PepsiCo”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners	$20.88 billion	1.94	$1.53 billion	$4.86	18.06
PepsiCo	$91.75 billion	2.12	$9.58 billion	$5.49	25.86

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

31.4% of Coca-Cola Europacific Partners shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.1% of PepsiCo shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.0% of Coca-Cola Europacific Partners shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of PepsiCo shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners	N/A	N/A	N/A
PepsiCo	8.23%	57.81%	10.63%

Summary

PepsiCo beats Coca-Cola Europacific Partners on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Coca-Cola Europacific Partners

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners PLC, together with its subsidiaries, produces, distributes, and sells a range of non-alcoholic ready to drink beverages. It offers flavours, mixers, and energy drinks; soft drinks, waters, enhanced water, and isotonic drinks; and ready-to-drink tea and coffee, juices, and other drinks. The company provides its products under the Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Fanta, Sprite, Monster Energy, Coca-Cola Energy, Relentless, nalu, URGE, BURN, Kuli, REIGN, POWERADE, Appletiser, Schweppes, FINLEY, mezzo mix, Royal Bliss, Lift, Vio SCHORLE, Coca-Cola Signature Mixers, NORDIC MIST, smartwater, Chaudfontaine, AQUARIUS, VILAS del Turbon, BONAQUA, Apollinaris, Krystal, Honest, Costa Coffee, Fuzetea, CHAQWA, NESTEA, Capri-Sun, Oasis, Minute Maid, MER, and Tropico brands. In addition, it engages in the bottling and other operations. The company was formerly known as Coca-Cola European Partners plc and changed its name to Coca-Cola Europacific Partners PLC in May 2021. The company was founded in 1904 and is based in Uxbridge, the United Kingdom.

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.