• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, March 14, 2018

Nestlé is now the world’s largest consumer packaged goods company, with a market cap value of $267.5 billion as of the end of 2017, according to the latest analysis by data and analytics company GlobalData.

That bumps Procter & Gamble into the #2 position, although P&G’s $228.8 billion “M cap” saw little change from last year. Anheuser-Busch InBev remains in third position, with a $226 billion M cap. AB InBev and Nestlé saw 19.4% and 18.2% growth in M cap, respectively.

GlobalData bases its top-25 rankings on market cap valuations, together with end-of-year numbers from publicly traded CPG companies’ own latest annual reports.

CPG companies filling out the top 10 are The Coca-Cola Company ($196.6 billion), PepsiCo ($166.9 billion), Kweichow Moutal ($153.7 billion), Unilever ($153.3 billion), L’Oreal ($125.8 billion), Kraft Heinz ($94.2 billion) and Diageo ($90.4 billion).

Most of the top 25 showed M cap growth, with 19 registering double-digit growth — although among U.S.-headquartered companies, Kraft Heinz, Mondelez (#12, with $63.5 billion M cap) and General Mills (#22, $32.9 billion) saw declines. Kweichow Moutai made the top 10 for the first time after realizing 1.3 times growth in M cap value.

Looking at revenue, 40% of the top 10 — including Kraft Heinz ($26.5 billion in total revenue), Kweichow Moutai ($6.1 billion), AB InBev ($45.5 billion) and Diageo ($16.3 billion) — saw increases, while the rest remained largely unchanged.

Kraft Heinz recorded the largest revenue growth: up 44.4% versus 2016’s revenue.

Revenues for the others in the top 10: Nestlé, $90.8 billion; P&G, $65.1 billion; Coca-Cola, $41.9 billion; PepsiCo, $62.8 billion; Unilever, $58.5 billion; and L’Oreal, $28.7 billion.

The top 25 had an average operating margin of over 22.3%, with good operating margin returns for AB InBev at 28.3%, Constellation Brands at 32.7%, and Diageo at 29.7%.

The EV/EBITDA (enterprise value to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) average for the group was 25.8, with seven companies ranking better than the average. The average P/E for the group was 32.1 (excluding AB InBev, which had a P/E ratio of 171), with 10 companies above the average.

The earnings per share average for the group was $2.70, with 13 companies above the average, including Constellation Brands, L'Oreal, Kimberly-Clark, and Pernod Ricard. AB InBev was among those in the top 25 recording a lower-than-average EPS.

A GlobalData table lays out all of the analyzed metrics for the top 25, as well as 2017 versus 2016 rankings by M cap.