PepsiCo Profit Climbs Despite Weakness in Soft Drinks PepsiCo reported higher-than-expected quarterly earnings on Wednesday, as price increases and productivity improvements helped its margins in the face of weak soft-drink sales in North America and Europe. In addition, the company, which makes Pepsi-Cola, Frito-Lay snacks and Tropicana juices, cited a lower tax rate and a $137 million gain related to refranchising its bottling operations in Vietnam. A J. P. Morgan analyst, John Faucher, said those issues made the results look better than they were. "The headline is much better than the net result," Mr. Faucher said. The smaller soft-drink company Dr Pepper Snapple Group also released results on Wednesday, saying profit fell on weak sales volume. A week ago, Coca-Cola reported disappointing sales, blaming poor weather. Nelson Peltz, an activist shareholder, said that PepsiCo should buy Mondelez International, maker of Oreo cookies, and split off its soft-drink business. Despite the numbers, PepsiCo stood by its outlook for 2013, which calls for earnings growth of 7 percent. Net income was $2.01 billion, or $1.28 a share in PepsiCo's second quarter, up from $1.49 billion, or 94 cents a share a year earlier. Excluding items like restructuring and integration charges, earnings were $1.31 a share. On that basis, analysts on average were expecting $1.19 a share, according to Thomson Reuters. Net revenue rose 2 percent, to $16.81 billion, topping analysts" estimate of $16.79 billion. On the more challenged drinks division, volume in the Americas fell 3.5 percent, was flat in Europe and rose 9 percent in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.