PepsiCo's profit rises more than expected with sales of snacks

17 Apr-PepsiCo announced on Thursday a quarterly profit higher, pulled by sales growth in its business of snacks.
The maker of Pepsi-Cola, Frito-Lay snacks and Tropicana juices, said that, excluding the impact of foreign exchange and of changes in the business of Pepsico, revenues increased 4 percent.
Total revenue in the first quarter ended March 22 reached 12.62 billion dollars, up from 12.43 billion dollars expected on Wall Street, according to Thomson Reuters
I/B/E/S.
PepsiCo's food sales in the Americas rose 5 percent, led by gains in Latin America. The total volume of snacks rose 2 percent.
The company, which is under pressure from activist investor Nelson Peltz to separate its beverage and snacks business, recorded net profit of 1.22 billion dollars, or 0.79 dollar a paper in the first quarter, compared with 1.08 billion dollars, or $ 0.69 per share a year earlier.
Excluding items such as restructuring charges, PepsiCo had profit of $ 0.83 per share, 8 cents higher than expected by analysts.
A weak spot for the company continued to be soft-drink sales. In North America, the soft drink volume fell 1 percent.
The company maintained its previous projection for the whole year and still expects organic revenue grows, Percentagewise, in a middle digit this year.
(By Phil Wahba)