Pepsi's profits climb 15%

Soft drink and snack food giant PepsiCo today posted a 15 per cent rise in fourth-quarter profits, boosted by earnings growth…

Soft drink and snack food giant PepsiCo today posted a 15 per cent rise in fourth-quarter profits, boosted by earnings growth across its units.

PepsiCo, whose products include Pepsi soft drinks and Tropicana juices, said in a statement that it earned $567 million up from $494 million a year earlier.

The Pepsi-Cola North America posted a 15 per cent climb in net sales to $995 million from $867 million a year earlier, due to healthy volume gains and higher concentrate pricing.

Pepsi-Cola International net sales slipped 4 per cent to $528 million in the quarter, reflecting a 5 percentage-point impact from adverse foreign currency exchange rates.

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For the full year, PepsiCo's total net income jumped 16 per cent to $2.14 billion as net sales grew 8 per cent to $20.14 billion.

Shares of PepsiCo closed up $1.17 at $44.84 on Friday. The shares have outperformed the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index by about 25 per cent over the last year. They have also outperformed those of PepsiCo's key rival, Coca-Cola.

Reuters