Pepsi, Cognizant among America's 50 best

Global beverage giant Pepsico and outsourcing major Cognizant, both headed by Indian-origin persons, figure on a list of '50 best corporate performers' by US financial magazine BusinessWeek .

However, both the Companies -- Indra Nooyi-run Pepsico and Francisco D'Souza-headed Cognizant Technology – have dropped from their previous year rankings.

While PepsiCo has managed to beat arch-rival Coca-Cola in the annual BusinessWeek 50 list, it has fallen one rung from its previous year's ranking. Cognizant has shed seven places from its 2007 rank.

PepsiCo, which has Chennai-born Nooyi at the top as its Chairman and CEO, has been ranked at 31st position in this year's list, where Cognizant has been placed at 19th.

D'Souza, who was part of Cognizant's founding members, had become its President and CEO with effect from January 1, 2007.

The list, based on metrics such as sales growth and investment return, has been topped by US-based retailer Coach, biotechnology major Gilead Sciences, speciality metals firm Allegheny Technologies, telecom giant Verizon and energy company Questar at the top five positions.

Apple, which makes digital music player iPods and Mac personal computers, has been placed at sixth place, while consumer goods giant Colgate-Palmolive is at seventh.

The Companies were selected from among the constituents of S&P 500 index on two key metrics -- return on investment and sales growth over the past three years and return on equity and assets growth for financial service firms.

Other major firms on the list include Starbucks (16), Goldman Sachs (21), Amazon.com (23), AT&T (27), Lehman Brothers (33), Google (34), Microsoft (41), Moody's (44), Coca-Cola (45) and ExxonMobil (50).

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