Pepsi (PEP) showed up during this week’s Value Line update as one of the potential companies of interest — even if the return forecast was at the lower end of the featured stock spectrum.

At a Value Line low total return forecast of 13%, that actually compares quite favorably to the median Value Line low total return forecast of 7.9%. And now we trust, but verify.

Pepsi (PEP) is ranked #13 in the MANIFEST 40 (December 2012) with an excellent quality rating.

With a sales growth forecast of 5%, net margin of 11% and a projected average P/E of 18x, the projected annual return is 10% … a little less robust after conditioning the expectations by factoring in the opinions of S&P and Morningstar.

But 10% is still pretty good for this high-quality industry leader.