As investor concern about a coming recession drags down the stock market, the chief financial officer of PepsiCo said Thursday that the company is not seeing any slowdown in consumer spending across its business.
“I can speak for our business, and what we see is a consumer that really likes our products and is buying them at an increasing rate, so as far as we can tell, the consumer is actually doing just fine right now,” Johnston said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.”
The food and beverage giant has been investing more in marketing and advertising this year in a bid to spark sales growth for some of its legacy brands like Gatorade.
The investments have paid off. Shares of Pepsi jumped nearly 3% Thursday after the company reported third quarter earnings and revenue that topped analysts’ expectations.
Recession fears, triggered by weakening macroeconomic growth, contracting factory activity in the U.S. and trade tensions, dragged down the broader market on Tuesday and Wednesday. U.S. consumer confidence in September had its biggest drop in nine months as the trade war between the United States and China escalated.
Pepsi’s stock, which has a market value of $191 billion, is up 24% so far this year. Rival Coca-Cola, which has a market value of $228 billion, is up 12% so far this year.
