PepsiCo Net Worth: Global Growth of a Dividend King

Pepsi is a well-known brand with a long history of over a century, and its parent company, PepsiCo, has increased its value to more than $244.24 billion. The first Pepsi Cola drink, originally named “Brad’s Drink,” was made in New Bern, North Carolina, by local pharmacist Caleb Bradham in 1893.

This company is about more than just its ongoing competition with Coca-Cola. If you want to know about the growth of the Pepsi brand, its financial facts, or its dividend history, or what lies ahead for this popular drink, we have the information you need. Our experts at Business2Community have gathered the details for you.

What is PepsiCo’s Net Worth?

PepsiCo’s net worth is $244.24 billion, based on a share price of $177.25 as of September 2024.

PepsiCo releases its annual financial reports in April each year. The company launched on the NYSE with the ticker symbol PEP in 1965 after the Frito-Lay merger, at a share price of $0.75 each. In 2017, the company moved its listing to the NASDAQ on December 20, 2017 to take advantage of the trading tools offered by the exchange.

In 1971, the company first reported $1 billion in sales, and within two years that number had more than doubled to $2.3 billion and the share price was $1.03. It was in 1989 that the company hit the top 25 of the Fortune 500.

By 1995, thirty years after the merger of Frito-Lay and Pepsi, the company reported revenues of $30.94 billion and the share price had climbed to $27.94. By the time PepsiCo featured on the NASDAQ, shares were trading at $118.66. PepsiCo’s shares topped out in May 2023, at $189, off the back of a positive end-of-year report showing a 7% adjusted sales increase, with double-digit sales increases in Asia and Europe.

PepsiCo Dividend History

Historically, PepsiCo has paid a quarterly dividend in January, March, June, and September. The company earned the moniker Dividend King in February 2022, having increased its dividend annually for the past 50 years.

Who Owns PepsiCo?

PepsiCo is a publicly listed company traded on the NASDAQ with 76.04% owned by institutional investors and only 0.14% owned by insiders. The biggest shareholders in PepsiCo are Vanguard Group with 9.36%, Blackrock with 7.78%, and State Street Corporation with 3.88%.

In turn, PepsiCo owns a vast range of household brands across the globe, including:

• Pepsi
• Lay’s
• Gatorade
• Aquafina
• Dorito’s
• Quaker Oats#

Who is the CEO of PepsiCo?

The current CEO of PepsiCo is Ramon Laguarta. He assumed leadership in 2018 after Indra Nooyi stepped down.  When he assumed leadership, Laguarta became the first Spanish CEO of a major North American international company.

Prior to Laguarta, the CEO of PepsiCo was Indra Nooyi, one of only 25 female CEOs in the S&P 500 at the time she stood down in 2018. She led the company through a period of enormous growth and global expansion, nearly doubling revenue from $30 to $65 billion under her tenure.

Her leadership wasn’t without controversy. During a 2018 appearance on the Freakonomics Radio podcast, Nooyi was accused of making sexist comments about how men and women enjoy snacks differently. It’s unlikely to have fed into her reason for leaving since her replacement had already been lined up.

Here’s a rundown of all the CEOs in Pepsi and PepsiCo’s history:

Pepsi’s History Before PepsiCo

Pepsi became an instant success when it was first introduced. In fact, during its first five years, Brad’s Drink – as it was originally called – sold 20,000 gallons.

It was marketed as “delicious and healthful”.

In its heyday, it attracted one of the first celebrity endorsements when Barney Oldfield, a race car driver, was quoted in a 1909 newspaper ad:

A bully drink…refreshing, invigorating, a fine bracer before a race

The company was doing so well that Caleb Bradham, its founder, rebranded his drink as Pepsi-Cola and launched 240 Pepsi bottling plants in more than 20 states. The first Pepsi-Cola bottlers’ convention for the company took place in New Bern, North Carolina in 1910.

Things were looking good for the company. Until World War I happened.

Despite its initial success, the company started struggling to sell Pepsi-Cola in the aftermath of the First World War. Hikes in sugar prices were attributed to this struggle. The price of sugar rose from 5 cents a pound to 22 cents a pound. Sugar, at the time, was one of the main ingredients in the popular cola drink.

Pepsi went bankrupt for the first time in 1923. The Craven Holding Corporation purchased the trademark and secret recipe following this first bankruptcy. However, an attempt to revive it in the 20s failed after the Great Depression put further strain on people’s pockets.

Pepsi may well have been relegated to the history books at this point, if it wasn’t for a businessman by the name of Charles Godfrey Guth. The then-president of the Loft Candy Company decided to take a punt on the struggling company.

By the time Guth purchased what was left of the Pepsi-Cola company, it had filed for bankruptcy twice, most recently in 1931. Still, the candy manufacturer pressed on, completely revamping the Pepsi recipe. Yet, Pepsi-Cola syrup sales were down despite Guth’s new recipe.

The real breakthrough that likely saved Pepsi from yet another colossal collapse was the introduction of the competitively priced twelve-ounce bottles. At the time, fizzy drinks were sold in six-ounce bottles. Guth had the brilliant idea to introduce a twelve-ounce bottle instead.

This, however, didn’t boost soda syrup sales as much as anticipated. Guth then slashed the prices of his twelve-ounce bottles, selling them at the same price point as the six-ounce bottles sold by other soft drink manufacturers.  Predictably, sales soon skyrocketed.

For the first time in the last turbulent decade of its existence, Pepsi was showing its potential. Price-conscious punters suffering under the Great Depression were making the switch from Coca-Cola to Pepsi.

And a radio advertising jingle introduced as part of a 1920s ad campaign made sure people knew about it, too. Here’s an excerpt from the famous ad:

Twelve full ounces, that’s a lot.
Twice as much for a nickel, too.
Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you…

The original jingle can be heard in the YouTube video below.

Pepsi’s first radio advertising jingle and its new, competitively priced 12-ounce bottles may have saved the company from ruin.

Growth and Development of Pepsi

The Pepsi brand had a tumultuous history. But its success story shows how business acumen, innovation, and clever advertising can turn a potential failure into a global success story.

The 30s marked the start of a period of growth for the Pepsi brand. Ambitious ad campaigns and celebrity endorsements brought in profits, which in turn led to innovation.

Developing Pepsi-Cola further, in 1948 the first Pepsi can was introduced. The drink had previously only been sold in bottles or via soda fountains.

Then, in 1964, the Diet Pepsi soft drink was introduced for the first time. Diet Pepsi was a sugar-free version of Pepsi. It was received well by customers in the US, and as such, in 1983, it was introduced in the United Kingdom as well.

It has since become available worldwide and has been endorsed by celebrities, including model Cindy Crawford and singer Gwen Stefani.

Let’s explore in more detail how developing Pepsi-Cola changed the soft drinks industry.

1965: The PepsiCo Merger That Changed History

The merger between Pepsi-Cola and Frito-Lay changed Pepsi’s history forever. On June 8, 1965, a food and beverage behemoth entered the global scene.

Frito-Lay itself was the product of a merger between the Frito Company and H.W.Lay & Company in 1961. The companies produced corn chips, potato chips, and other snacks in North America.

The reasoning behind the merger was simple. In an interview following the merger, then-CEO Donald Kendall said:

Potato chips make you thirsty; Pepsi satisfies thirst.

The idea was to advertise Pepsi along with Frito-Lay snacks. This didn’t work out as planned, however. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ruled in 1968 that PepsiCo could not tie in its salty snacks and Pepsi drinks within its advertisements.

PepsiCo was also barred from acquiring further food and beverage companies for at least 10 years as part of the ruling. Despite this hurdle, PepsiCo went on to make unlikely allies as it expanded internationally. And, much of its later success and differentiation from Coca-Cola was attributed to its diversification strategy.

1972: Pepsi, the First US Consumer Product Exported to the USSR

Then CEO Donald Kendall sold Pepsi into the Soviet Union by brokering a deal with Nikita Kruschev in the early 70s. Kendall had first struck up a relationship with the Soviet leader in the late 50s, so this deal had been decades in the making.

Pepsi became the first American consumer product to be sold in the former Soviet Union.

It was a fruitful business endeavor, lasting decades. It wasn’t until 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, that Pepsi decided to halt operations in the country.

1975: The Pepsi Challenge Tries to Change Attitudes

PepsiCo’s popular cola drink had (and continues to have) one main rival: The Coca-Cola Company and their soft drink.

In 1975, PepsiCo launched a marketing campaign involving a blind test pitting Coca-Cola Classic against Pepsi.

The challenge worked as follows; people in shopping centers were asked to taste Coca-Cola and Pepsi. The drinks were placed in cups without labels. The results, according to Pepsi, showed that more people preferred Pepsi. Pepsi’s market share also increased by 2.8% within a year of the campaign’s launch.

While Coca-Cola disputed the ad campaign in court, the Pepsi Challenge was a massive campaign that lasted into the 80s. By the end of the campaign, approximately 75 million people participated in the US alone.

In November 2022, the Pepsi MAX Taste Challenge involved 34,000 blind tests in the UK. The results showed that 70% of UK soda drinkers prefer no-sugar Pepsi MAX compared to regular Coca-Cola.

The idea behind this project, according to the UK Marketing Director for Pepsi Beverages, was to “challenge the public’s preconceptions” and “make them think twice about their choices”.

2006: Indra Nooyi Doubles PepsiCo’s Revenue in a Decade

Indra Nooyi, a Yale-educated former Boston Consulting Group consultant, joined PepsiCo in 1994 and rose through the ranks to become the company’s CEO in 2006. She was the company’s first female CEO.

Under her leadership, PepsiCo thrived, nearly doubling its revenue in just over a decade. Between 2006 and 2017, PepsiCo’s revenues increased from $35 billion to $63.5 billion. Sales also grew by more than 80% during her time as CEO.

And while Nooyi adopted a strategy of innovation, she also decided to return to the company’s roots. In 2012, she moved the annual PepsiCo shareholders meeting back to New Bern, North Carolina, where the Pepsi drink started.

Commenting on the decision, Nooyi said: “We are proud to be a North Carolina company and feel at home right here.” And while the company experienced growth during Nooyi’s leadership, the million-dollar question remains.

2016: “Is Pepsi OK?”

If you’re a Coke fan, chances are, you’ve heard the dreaded “Is Pepsi OK?” when ordering drinks at a restaurant. The “Is Pepsi OK?” tagline has become meme-worthy in the 21st century.

Pepsi is well aware that they’re many people’s second choice.

In 2016, the company introduced a tongue-in-cheek ad campaign leaning into the popular phrase featuring celebrities like Cardi B and Steve Carell.

The premise was simple. Pepsi isn’t just OK: Pepsi is more than OK.

But while Pepsi remains one of the most popular soft drinks out there, Coca-Cola is currently winning the popularity contest despite clever advertising strategies. Coca-Cola remains the leading carbonated soft drink in the US.

In 2022, it held a 46.3% volume share. Pepsi, on the other hand, was a distant second with just 24.7% of the volume share, with Keurig Dr Pepper holding 21.3%.

Pepsi’s Controversies and Scandals

Global companies often make missteps and get involved in situations they should have considered better. Here are three Pepsi controversies in the last 30 years that show the company isn’t beyond reproach.

Pepsi Number Fever in 1992

Pepsi launched a competition in the Philippines in 1992 called Number Fever. It meant that a special number was printed inside bottle caps and prizes of up to $40,000 were available.

On May 25, 1992, a news company announced the winning number as 349. There had been two official winners printed with that number along with a verification code, but many more caps had the number without the code without the code. Thousands across the nation were disappointed and PepsiCo offered an apology and compensation of $18 as a gesture of goodwill. This move cost PepsiCo $8.9 million.

Many more people weren’t satisfied with the outcome and formed the 349 Alliance. The group held regular protests outside the PepsiCo HQ in the country. At one such protest in February 1993, a homemade bomb was thrown at a Pepsi truck, killing two people. Three Pepsi employees were also killed by a grenade thrown at a warehouse in May the same year.

Legal action eventually ensued. Pepsi paid a relatively small fine to the Filipino government and plaintiffs were awarded roughly $380 each from Pepsi. Appeals led to some being awarded $570 plus legal fees, and the Supreme Court eventually ended further appeals in 2001.

Pepsi, Kendall Jenner, and Black Lives Matter Outrage

2017 saw Pepsi release a YouTube advertisement featuring Kendal Jenner. In it, she offers a Pepsi to a police officer, which doesn’t seem so controversial. However, the imagery surrounding the event caused concern.

At the time, the US was awash with protests for the Black Lives Matter movement. Mulitple cases of police brutality against People of Color had brought people to the streets across the country to protest. In the opening scenes of the advertisement, Pepsi co-opted imagery of protests which people claimed minimized the real issues being protested at the time.

Furthermore, the peaceful interaction with a police officer caused further anger, since it didn’t reflect the experiences of the protestors.

The ad was quickly pulled from official Pepsi accounts.

Stay Thirsty During the Gaza Conflict

PepsiCo had been the target of boycotts due to its financial involvement in Israel during the Gaza conflict which began in October 2023. PepsiCo owns Soda Stream, the Israeli-founded company, and so has been on boycott lists for activists to follow.

Pepsi seemed to exacerbate its low reputation in the region with a new advertising campaign in June 2024. It launched billboards and TV advertisements with the Pepsi logo and the slogan, in Arabic, saying “Stay Thirsty”. Meanwhile, at the time international aid organizations were saying that famine in Gaza was imminent, right across the border from Egypt. Famine has since been declared in the region.

Activists and protestors responded by making social media posts using protest symbols of an inverted red triangle and the watermelon emoji, with text which translated as “Stay a loser, I’m not thirsty”.

Even with the boycotts, Pepsi reported double-digit growth in Egypt in Q2 2024, although it did see a decline in sales in the first quarter of the year which was attributed to slowing sales in the Middle East region.

History of the Pepsi Logo

Pepsi has been around for more than a century. In that period, its logo has been redesigned a total of 13 times.

Pepsi, previously known as Brad’s Drink, got its first logo when it was first introduced in 1893.

The first logo, an ornate dark blue font against a white background, is likely completely unrecognizable to the modern Pepsi drinker.

It wasn’t until 1898 that Brad’s Drink was renamed to Pepsi-Cola. This was in an effort to explain what the drink was and what it did. It was still marketed as a health drink.

“Pepsi” came from the word dyspepsia, meaning indigestion. Pepsi was originally marketed as an indigestion drink. The “Cola” in Pepsi Cola referred to the Kola nuts used to produce the drink.

The new logo was a complete departure from “Brad’s Drink”. It used a bright red font and spiky letters to show off the rebrand.

This red logo saw several tweaks over the next few decades. Ultimately, however, the red lettering was the basis of the Pepsi-Cola brand until the 1950s.

It wasn’t until the 50s that Pepsi introduced the iconic blue in its branding. The reasoning for this was twofold. First, it was a nod to growing patriotism after World War II. The company’s colors were now red, white, and blue, mimicking the American flag.

In addition, Pepsi’s main competitor, Coca-Cola, used red in its logo. The introduction of the blue in Pepsi’s logo was an effort to differentiate it from its rival.

This is also why, in 1962, Pepsi-Cola ditched the “Cola” from its logo. From then on, Pepsi was known as simply Pepsi.

The old, swirly red logo was replaced with a boldface, all-caps “PEPSI” label, and Pepsi-Cola was no more. Over the years, the logo saw several revamps to fit current trends. But the red, white, and blue remained.

You can see the evolution of the Pepsi logo below, courtesy of Design Week.

The Future of Pepsi

Pepsi has survived and thrived in the past century because its leadership has always had an understanding of the changing needs and wants of its customer base. PepsiCo’s most recent long-term strategy shows that the company continues to recognize the key to its success.

The Pep+ (PepsiCo Positive) strategy outlines how the company will change in the future. The strategy is based on three pillars, including positive agriculture, positive value chain, and positive choices. Much of Pep+ focuses on sustainability, a pivotal aspect of any modern company’s long-term approach.

Pep+, for instance, aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040 through measures such as reducing virgin plastic usage by 50% and expanding its SodaStream business to avoid the production of 200 billion plastic bottles by 2030.

Wall Street analysts believe that Pepsi might surpass Coca-Cola’s value in the 2020s. One analyst projected a 20% rise in PepsiCo shares in 2024. This, however, is largely attributed to the fact that PepsiCo offers a range of popular food and beverage options, while the Coca-Cola company has chosen to focus on beverages alone.

Whether Pepsi wins the Cola wars or not, it’s clear that its leadership plans to continue innovating and growing as the company remains a firm Wall Street favorite.

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