Sector · Beverages

What beverage companies are worth

5 listed beverage companies, compared on the measures that survive a look at the balance sheet. Every figure is built from filed accounts.

Where the sector trades

The median beverage companie trades on 15.7× EBITDA, across the 4 of 5 companies where EBITDA could be computed from filings. Median operating margin is 25.5%.

Median valuation measures for Beverages
Measure	Sector median	Companies measured
EV / EBITDA*	15.7×	4 of 5
EV / Sales*	3.8×	4 of 5
Net debt / EBITDA	2.2×	5 of 5
Return on capital	16.5%	5 of 5
Operating margin	25.5%	5 of 5
Free cash flow margin	11.0%	5 of 5

All beverage companies we cover

5 beverage companies compared on valuation measures
Company	EV / EBITDA	EV / Sales	Operating margin	Free cash flow margin	Return on capital
BF-BBROWN FORMAN CORP	12.9×	3.6×	25.5%	22.7%	16.5%
KDPKeurig Dr Pepper Inc.	16.6×	4.0×	21.5%	9.1%	7.2%
KOCOCA COLA CO	27.7×	8.6×	28.7%	11.0%	17.8%
PEPPEPSICO INC	14.7×	2.3×	12.2%	8.2%	17.6%
STZCONSTELLATION BRANDS, INC.	—	—	29.8%	19.6%	13.9%

* EV/EBITDA and EV/Sales move with share prices; these are a snapshot taken 2026-09-09. Margins and return on capital come from filed accounts and hold until the next reporting season. A dash means the measure could not be computed — most often because EBITDA was negative, or because enterprise value is not a meaningful concept for the company. Each company page says which.

Head to head

10 pairs from this sector compared side by side, with the sector median beside them.

KO vs PEP KDP vs KO BF-B vs KO KO vs STZ KDP vs PEP BF-B vs PEP PEP vs STZ BF-B vs KDP KDP vs STZ BF-B vs STZ

How to read these

EV/EBITDA compares the whole cost of the business — equity plus debt, less cash — to its operating cash earnings. It is the multiple an acquirer thinks in, and unlike a P/E it is not distorted by how much debt a company carries.

Operating and free cash flow margins need no share price at all, so they are the fairest way to compare companies within a sector on the same day. A wide gap between the two usually means heavy capital spending.

Return on capital is operating income over debt plus equity. It says how much the business earns on the money tied up in it, which is a different question from whether the shares are cheap.

None of these is a recommendation, and a low multiple is not the same thing as a bargain — see the disclaimer. The company pages show the arithmetic and link to the filing behind every term.