Battle of the Bottlers: Coca-Cola Enterprises, Pepsi Americas Earnings

It's the battle of the bottlers this morning.

The largest bottler of Coca-Cola products and the number two Pepsi bottler both announced results this morning.

Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) posted better than expected earnings of $247 million, or 50 cents per share, as compared to $214 million, or 44 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.

Coca-Cola's (KO) number one bottler said it is now looking for full-year earnings of $1.54 to $1.57 per share, as compared to its previous forecast for earnings at the high end of a range of $1.44 to $1.49 per share.

Pepsi drinkers may be disappointed to learn that PepsiCo's (PEP) second-largest bottler did not do as well in the quarter.

PepsiAmericas (PAS) said it earned $63.5 million, or 51 cents per share, for the quarter, as compared to $73.1 million, or 58 cents per share, in the same quarter last year. Excluding items, earnings totaled 59 cents per share, still missing Wall Street expectations.

PepsiAmericas cut its full-year adjusted earnings outlook as well, to a range of $1.83 to $1.87 per share, as compared to a prior forecast of $1.87 to $1.94 per share.

PepsiCo announced a $7.8 billion buyout of PepsiAmericas and the largest Pepsi bottler, Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG) in August. The deal was approved by European regulators yesterday.

The preceeding is a transcript of the MarketNewsVideo.com video published at: http://www.marketnewsvideo.com/?id=200910CocaCola-Pepsi102809&mv=1.

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