6 companies · median 21 of 36 checks · prices as of 2026-09-08
Food and beverage stocks.
Sorted by how many checks each one passes. Sort by any column to see who is cheapest, who is growing, or who has the strongest balance sheet - and how that compares with what is normal for the industry.
Ranked by checks passed
6 of 201 covered companies→The food and beverage companies we cover are not one trade: Coca-Cola (KO) passes 26 of its 36 checks and Kraft Heinz (KHC) passes 11, with a median of 21.
→KO, PEP, MNST are 89% of the $683.2B we cover here, so a sector average says more about them than about the rest.
 Coca-ColaKOSells concentrate and syrup to bottlers for the world's best-known drinks.ReportFact sheet | +0.3% | +33.7% | 1 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 26/36 |
 PepsiCoPEPSells Pepsi, Gatorade and the Frito-Lay and Quaker snack brands.ReportFact sheet | +0.6% | -1.6% | 3 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 21/36 |
 Monster BeverageMNSTSells Monster energy drinks, distributed mostly by Coca-Cola bottlers.ReportFact sheet | -1.5% | +38.2% | 3 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 21/36 |
 HersheyHSYSells Hershey's and Reese's chocolate and a growing snacks business.ReportFact sheet | +0.1% | -3.8% | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 20/36 |
 CelsiusCELHSells Celsius energy drinks, distributed by PepsiCo.ReportFact sheet | -3.6% | -49.4% | 1 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 17/36 |
 Kraft HeinzKHCSells Heinz ketchup, Kraft cheese and a portfolio of packaged food brands.ReportFact sheet | +0.2% | -2.5% | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 11/36 |
The filings behind this table close between 2026-04-03 and 2026-06-30, because these companies do not share a fiscal calendar; prices are the close of 2026-09-08. Each name links to its full report; every score is a count of pass-or-fail checks read from that company's own filings.
Where the sector falls short
median score per axis→Trend analysis is where the food and beverage companies we cover come up short most often, at a median of 1 of 6, while Quality runs at 5.5.
| Value | ●●●○○○ | 3 of 6 |
| Growth | ●●●●○○ | 4 of 6 |
| Quality | ●●●●●● | 6 of 6 |
| Health | ●●●●○○ | 4 of 6 |
| Shareholder returns | ●●●●○○ | 4 of 6 |
| Trend analysis | ●○○○○○ | 1 of 6 |
What a normal margin looks like here
sector percentiles · 52 filers→Gross margin clusters among food and beverage companies, from 22% to 39% across the middle of the field, with a midpoint of 31% measured over 52 filers.
| Metric | Bottom third | Midpoint | Top third |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross margin n=52 | 22.4% | 31.5% | 39.1% |
| Operating margin n=53 | 3.9% | 7.9% | 11.9% |
| Net margin n=56 | 2.1% | 5.5% | 9.2% |
| Return on equity n=51 | 5.9% | 10.0% | 17.0% |
Who grows, and who keeps it
every company in the industry→HSY, MNST do both: growing faster than this industry's middle and keeping more of each sale than it does. The industry's middle is 3% growth on a 6% margin. KHC does neither.
A year of price
not a fact about the business→2 of 6 are up over twelve months and the median move is -2.1% - Monster Beverage (MNST) at +38.2% against Celsius (CELH) at -49.4%. Price is not a fact about a business, and the Trend chapter of each report says what it is measured on.
Head to head
3 pairsThe table above gives the order. These put two of them in one column each, so you can see where the difference actually is.