PepsiCo Inc on Thursday said quarterly profit rose 30 percent as health-conscious consumers snapped up diet soft drinks, bottled water and Gatorade.
Strength in the company's portfolio of diet soft drinks, as well as new products like Pepsi Vanilla, overcame weakness in the company's trademark Pepsi cola brand, and pushed the volume of overall products sold up 6 percent.
"Encouragingly, growth in revenue and line of business profit exceeded our estimates led by upsides in Pepsi International and North American beverages," Goldman Sachs analyst Marc Cohen said in a research report.
PepsiCo's stock rose 77 cents, or 1.62 percent, to $48.36 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Purchase, New York-based PepsiCo said it earned $897 million, or 51 cents a share, in the fourth quarter, compared with $689 million, or 39 cents a share, a year earlier.
Revenue rose to $8.07 billion from $7.38 billion.
Analysts were expecting the company to earn between 50 cents and 52 cents a share, with a mean estimate of 51 cents a share, according to Reuters Research, a unit of Reuters Group Plc.
"Our health and wellness brands are growing, as are our Fun-For-You businesses," Chairman and Chief Executive Steve Reinemund said in a statement. "We've achieved solid growth rates in snacks and beverages, both in our North American and in our International operations."
The company reiterated its 2004 earnings-per-share forecast of $2.24 to $2.28, which is in line with the mean Reuters Research estimate of $2.27.
The fourth-quarter results include a previously announced $147 million restructuring charge.
The company said in December it was reorganising its North American drinks business and closing a Frito-Lay plant in Kentucky to reduce costs. The moves cut 750 jobs from the payroll.