PepsiCo Q1 Earnings Top Expectations

reported upbeat earnings for the first quarter on Thursday. The Purchase, New York-based company posted quarterly net earnings of $1.221 billion, or $0.81 per share, versus $1.216 billion, or $0.79 per share, in the year-ago quarter. Excluding non-recurring items, the company's core earnings came in at $0.83 per share. Its revenue slipped 3 percent to $12.22 billion, while organic revenue climbed 4.4 percent. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.79 per share on revenue of $12.18 billion. Developing and emerging market net revenue slipped 12 percent. Cash flow provided by operating activities rose to $270 million in the first quarter, up from $181 million in the year-ago quarter. The average estimate among 24 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.81 per share and revenue of $12.30 billion. "We are pleased with our performance for the first quarter of 2015. Our focus on innovation, brand-building, and marketplace execution, funded in part by our productivity initiatives, continues to drive strong, fundamental business performance," said PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi. "In the quarter, we generated 4.4 percent organic revenue growth and we once again expanded both gross and operating margins. Indra Nooyi added, "However, foreign exchange translation and transaction headwinds persist. We have and will continue to take actions to manage through the current volatile macroeconomic environment by taking responsible pricing actions, tightly controlling costs, and optimizing our global sourcing to minimize and mitigate the impacts of the current foreign exchange challenges." The company affirmed its core constant currency EPS growth outlook of 7 percent for the full year 2015. It also projects organic revenue growth in mid-single digit. PepsiCo shares fell 0.29 percent to $97.00 in pre-market trading.