New Motley Fool Research Reveals the 10 Largest Consumer Staple Companies. Here's Which Dividend King Is Still Flying Under the Radar.

Sat, Aug 30, 2025, 9:06 AM 5 min read

• Consumer staples companies make things that people need and buy regularly.

• Many consumer staples makers have been so reliable as businesses that they have achieved Dividend King status.

• Diversified consumer staples giant PepsiCo has a historically high yield today as investors pass it by for better-performing stocks.

• 10 stocks we like better than PepsiCo ›

The Motley Fool just updated its report on the 10 largest consumer staple companies. You probably know every name on the list, which includes retail giants like Walmart (NYSE: WMT), product makers like Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), and tobacco companies like Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM). Also on that list is a Dividend King food and beverage company that has a historically high yield. Here's why it could be the best opportunity for investors today.

To get right to the crux of the topic, PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP) is the company in question. It sits at No. 7 on the list of the largest consumer staple companies, with a market cap of around $200 billion. It is one of three beverage makers on the list, the other two being Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) at No. 4 and Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE: BUD) at No. 10.

Unlike those other two, however, PepsiCo's business extends well beyond beverages. It also has leading positions in the salty snack (Frito-Lay) and packaged food (Quaker Oats) segments of the sector. It is one of the most diversified companies on the top-10 list. Only Unilever (NYSE: UL), which makes household products and food, has a similar degree of diversification.

PepsiCo, meanwhile, stands toe to toe with every company on the list with regard to name recognition. For more direct peers, those that manage brands and are not retailers, it can compete equally on distribution, marketing, and product development. And, like all the other names on the list, PepsiCo is large enough to act as an industry consolidator, buying smaller companies to round out its brand portfolio and keep up with consumers' buying habits.

The proof of the business's strength and resilience is best highlighted by the fact that PepsiCo is a Dividend King. It has increased its dividend annually for 53 consecutive years, which is not something a company can achieve if it doesn't have a strong business model that gets executed well in both good times and bad. For reference, other Dividend Kings on the list include Walmart, Coca-Cola, and Procter & Gamble.

Among the sub-grouping of large consumer staples companies that are also Dividend Kings, PepsiCo has been the laggard in recent years. To put a number on that, PepsiCo's 2.1% organic sales growth in the second quarter was less than half the 5% growth of Coca-Cola, its closest peer. No wonder PepsiCo's stock is down more than 20% from its 2023 highs, the worst result from the Dividend Kings grouping. That also puts PepsiCo into its own personal bear market.