PepsiCo Shares Head For New Highs After Better-than-expected Results

Shares of PepsiCo rose 1.7% in premarket trade Thursday after the beverage and snack giant reported third-quarter profit and sales that rose above expectations. The shares closed at an all-time high of $93.94 on Wednesday. For the quarter ended Sept. 6, net earnings rose to $2.01 billion, or $1.32 a share, from $1.91 billion, or $1.23 a share, in the year-earlier period. Excluding non-recurring items, core per-share earnings came in at $1.36, beating the FactSet consensus analyst estimate of $1.29. Sales rose 2% from last year to $17.22 billion, above analyst forecasts of $17.08 billion, with sales strength in its Frito-Lay North America, Latin America Foods and Asia, Middle East & Africa business offsetting weakness in Quaker Foods North America and Europe. Pepsi also raised its core, constant currency earnings-per-share growth forecast for the full year to 9% from 8%.