Shares of PepsiCo Inc. surged Wednesday toward its best performance in 2 1/2 years, after the beverage and snack giant reported third-quarter profit and revenue that rose above expectations and raised its full-year outlook, as higher prices helped offset some volume weakness. Net income for the quarter to Sept. 3 rose to $2.70 billion, or $1.95 a share, from $2.22 billion, or $1.60 a share in the same period a year ago.
Excluding nonrecurring items, core earnings per share of $1.97 beat the FactSet EPS consensus of $1.84. Revenue grew 8.8% to $21.97 billion, well above the FactSet consensus of $20.84 billion. Unfavorable currency translation reduced revenue growth by 3 percentage points. That marked the 15th-straight quarter that PepsiCo beat profit expectations and the 20th-straight quarter revenue projections were exceeded, according to FactSet data. The stock
PEP,
+4.18%
climbed 4.2% to close at $169.39, the biggest one-day gain since it ran up 5.7% o April 14, 2020. It was also the best one-day post-earnings performance since the stock rallied 4.8% on July 18, 2018, after second-quarter 2018 results. Among PepsiCo’s largest segments, revenue from PepsiCo Beverages North American rose 3.6% to $6.64 billion, Frito-Lay North America jumped 19.6% to $5.56 billion, Europe increased 0.9% to $3.65 billion and Latin America grew 19.9% to $2.52 billion. Quaker Oats North America revenue was up 15.4% to $713 million. Volume declined 1.5% in con …